Ninja of Santoryu
by Skillet28561
Summary: After the wave mission, Naruto has had enough of his abuse and escapes on the way home. During his travels he meets a pirate hunting swordsman seeking his own goals who teaches him the ways of the sword. 6 years later he's forced to return for the chunin exams, but senses something bigger happening behind the closed doors of his old hell. Some Bashing. NOT Super Naruto
1. Prologue:The Last Straw

**Disclaimer:****I don't own Naruto or One Piece. However I am making plans for the former...**

**Cedric: Hey Skillet I got that paperwork you wanted from that Kishimoto guy.**

**Skillet: Great, give one set to me and give the other set to KingKakashi.**

**Cedric. What about that Oda person you want me to "visit" him too**

**Skillet: NO! One Piece is already perfect!**

**Cedric: Awwww, but it's so boring around here now that Voodoo's Disciple is on hiatus. I have to have some fun. And besides what's stopping me from going anyway?**

**Skillet: Touch him and I'll pair you with Duncan and Sierra at the same time!**

**Cedric:...I hate you.**

**Skillet: Well I love you too.**

**Arc 0: Zoro's Training  
**

**Prologue- The Last Straw:**

Team 7 was walking down The Great Naruto Bridge, a name that nobody knew about. Tazuna and Tsunami had both known they were going to name the bridge this beforehand after Zabuza's last stand. But they decided to keep this quiet until they were out of earshot.

Tazuna decided to do this as he knew there would be several objections. Sasuke would say he should have the title due his Uchiha name and not "the dobe". Sakura would agree saying that "her Sasuke-kun" was much more deserving of it than a worthless orphan like Naruto. While Kakashi would ask him to "consider" changing the name to pay tribute to Sasuke, his favorite student.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, now that we're teammates and all, you wanna go out with me" asked who do you think**( it's not Naruto or Kakashi. This is not and will never be a yaoi.)**.

"No Sakura." the rookie of the year replied very bluntly. He felt he shouldn't trouble himself with fan girl trash like her. He wanted strong kunoichi to restore his clan with.

This brought the bubble gum haired girl into a brief depression. This depression was quickly replaced with anger when a scratchy yet friendly voice rang out.

"I'll go out with you Sakura-chan" Naruto tried to console his crush after she had once again been rejected by the emo pre-teen. It didn't get him very far. In fact the most it had gotten him was a painful punch to the head.

"I would rather date the kyuubi than you, you freak of nature. Why would any sane woman ever want to go out with you. You're own parents didn't even want you!" Sakura screamed what she thought was the honest truth to the blonde.

However this was nothing more than a hurtful insult that was embedded into her by civilian Naruto hating lifestyle.

This brought the blonde into a much deeper depression. He was used to such things after getting thrown out of the orphanage at the age of two, for starting a fight that was merely him standing up for himself to some ten year old children of shop owners.

However the pain never got any better. In fact it only got worse and this point he only had three straws left in the cup of his patience. And Sakura had just removed one leaving only two.

After about 5 hours if walking they had it to the mainland. Unfortunately for them it was getting dark.

"Alright team, it's getting dark so we should probably camp here for the night." Kakashi told his students. That term was used very lightly as he only really taught Sasuke.

The mentioned then spoke out in an egotistical manner "I think all three of us should divide responsibilities".

This got 2 responses. One was Sakura saying how "her Sasuke-kun" always came up with the best ideas. The other came from Naruto.

"Sasuke-teme, your so stupid! There are four of us counting Kakashi-sensei, not three!" Naruto quickly attempted to correct his rival.

The response he got only removed another straw.

"Nope dobe. There are only 3 of us. Did you forget or something? You're worthless." Those words rang in Naruto's mind pulling out another straw leaving only one.

He quickly tried to disagree in order to get it back, but he was stopped by hammering blow to the head by Sakura who told him not to disagree with "her Sasuke-kun" and that compared to him he'll always be a worthless piece of trash.

Once his team disbanded to get supplies the depressed jinchuriki crawled into his sleeping bag. He silently wished that Haku and Zabuza were still alive so he could someone to understand him and be his friend, as he silently drifted off into sleep.

* * *

The orange clad gennin awoke a dark and damp area which appeared to be a sewer. He didn't where he was or why he was here, all he knew is that he felt compelled to continue down the hallway.

Eventually he reached the end of the passage only to find an extremely large prison in front of him. He wondered just what kind of beast this thing would be made contain. A few seconds later.

"At long last, I meet the warden of this cage I've called home for over a decade now" a a loud and grisly voice echoed around the room. A voice that came from inside the prison.

Naruto jerked his head around, to the direction of the cage. He saw a large fox shaped figure which kept getting closer and closer until it was revealed to be the dreaded Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"I never imagined my jailor would be so pathetic... Umm you awake kid?" The demon asked taking note that the young boy was frozen in place by the sight of the intimidating creature.

"Oh right! I've been alone so long I'd forgotten that this form scares the shit outta people. I guess I should change."

A great deal yokai chakra the began swarming around him getting smaller and smaller until it revealed a man **( Not a girl this time around.)**

He was a very slim and tall man who appeared to be about 25 years old. He had pure white spiky hair, much like his container, except his was slinked more to the right. He two rows of canine teeth and blood red irises. He wore a light black business suit with thin white stripes running down vertically with a crimson undershirt.

"So kid. There's something I've gotta ask you." Kyuubi asked in a much smoother and calmer voice than before.

"ooOk, shoot!"

"Why don't you leave Konoha. I've seen the world through your eyes for 12 years now. And from what I've seen the yondaime shoulda let me finish the job. I mean only a small percentage of the population treats you like we're the same people, and the rest either ignore you, insult you, or try to outright murder you. That, and besides Sarutobi the government is corrupt as all hell. Even your team treats you like shit. So why don't you beat it find something else out there?"

Naruto looked like he had an epiphany for a few seconds before replying zealously.

"No way, I can't leave Konoha, it's my home! What I need to do is use my awesome ninja skills to become Hokage. Then everybody will have to look up to me and acknowledge me!"

"Huh. Well I can see there's no changin' you're mind. Just get the hell outta here. About 8 hours have past in your world." he whispered while letting down his head and turning around before sitting down as if depressed by a past memory listening to the gennin's footsteps as he walked away.

"I guess he'll have learn his lesson the hard way... Just like me." Kyuubi growled while looking down on a tattered old bent up leaf headband.

* * *

Naruto awoke to a splitting sun in his eyes. He stretched and yawned for a few moments before standing up out of his sleeping bag. When he did a small scroll fell out which he was quick to open up and read.

_Members of Team 7. Meet for training at 7:00 am_

_ From Kakashi_

He looked up at the sun and saw that it was about 6:30 from its position. He didn't know many book smarts from the academy. But he remembered this from when he actually tried to learn, instead of goofing off for attention.

It took him about 15 minutes to get ready, before heading to a nearby clearing where his teammates were waiting. However it took much longer for their teacher to arrive. Two hours to be precise.

But by this point in time, it really didn't surprise them at all. This had been the 5th time and counting he'd been this late. But as mentioned previously, after two long hours he arrived.

"I'm sorry I'm late but I had calm to calm down an angry grizzly bear who was about to eat a hiker"

Because of the ridiculous and outlandish excuse, he got the typical response from two of his students.

"YOU LIAR!"

With a quick chuckle of amusement, the Jounin then began briefing his team on their training.

"Sakura you need to work on your strength and endurance, Naruto you need to work your chakra control, and Sasuke you're coming with me. I'm going to teach you water walking."

"Wait a minute how come Sasuke gets to learn a new jutsu when all I'm stuck with is chakra control" Naruto quickly objected.

"Because out of all of you Sasuke has made the most progress. He came up with the plan to beat Zabuza while he trapped me, and he was the one who beat Haku. While all you've is screw things up and goof off. When you're up to his level if that day ever comes, then I'll teach water walking"

The team then disbanded with only Naruto frozen in place thinking to himself.

_'He gave everything I did and everything I fought for on this mission away to Sasuke. Just to make an excuse to train him... He really doesn't care about me. Maybe Kyuubi's right._

As soon as that idea crept into his mind Naruto rushed to his tent and beganpacking his things. He moved fast with the fear that someone might see him. With a few minutes their was nothing their and Naruto was jumping through the trees with tear rolling down his face. As his sensei had just removed another straw from the cup of his patience...

The last straw.

* * *

**(A/N): Yes I know I said I was on hiatus but a said earlier by Cedric it got real boring real fast. And this was an idea I had back before I even came up with the concept for Voodoo's Disciple. So as of now Voodoo's Disciple is on hiatus, and not me. Naruto was my favorite anime in elementary school and One Piece is my favorite anime now. The One Piece part won't come in till next chapter though. But now it's time for a new version of**

**Skillet's Fanfic Recs:**

**Today's rec will be...**

**Naruto vs Sasuke the Aftermath:**

**Since this is anime story, I'll be doing anime recs for this one. Now with that said this seemingly simple concept has a much bigger reach then you might think. It goes fully into how Sasuke trying to kill Naruto changed the lives of everyone around it. And i mean lives cause by this point the characters I'd say are about 18-20. And the characters themselves are written extremely well to where you feel genuine emotions for them. However there are few things I should point out for new readers. The first thing is that the way Sasuke is portrayed on this story makes him look like a saint in my story. Then theirs the content. This story's rated M due to violence. This story is rated M due to... other reasons. However this is still a great and interesting story, and a must read for Naruto fans. Unless you like Sasuke.**

** . .**


	2. The Bounty Hunter and the Missing-Nin

**Disclaimer:**

**Shikamaru: This is a drag, why do I have to do the disclaimer?**

**Skillet: Cause Cedric and Bloo aren't talking to me, and Kyuubi is still drunk from the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes midnight showing with Yonbi and Duncan.**

**Shikamaru: Why can't you do the disclaimer like you did last time and like in all of your other stories**

**Skillet: Cause I'm in the middle of fighting Admin #4 on Pokemon Y**

**Shikamaru: Uggh Fine. How troublesome. Skillet28561 doesn't own Naruto or One Piece.**

**Skillet: Good Job. Now go meet with Temari before she caves your head in with that fan of hers.**

**Shikamaru: Oh crap. I forgot.**

***Runs Away***

**Skillet:Well that was... Interesting. On with the Story**

**Arc 0: Zoro's Training**

**Chapter 1: The Bounty Hunter and the Missing-Nin**

* * *

'_It's been almost a year since I left. I wonder how everyone is. Oh well, it's not like I can come back. I have no clue if I'm in the East Blue, West Blue, North Blue, South Blue, or even the Red Line. And besides I wouldn't be able to face Kuina's grave if I went back without fulfilling my promise'_

The green haired 15 year old's thoughts were interrupted by a hollow rumbling in his stomach. He dug into his pockets to see if he had any more beris. But just as he feared the pockets were completely empty.

Zoro knew this meant he would have to go bounty hunting again. He started doing this out of desperation about 5 months ago. He wasn't proud of it, and thought of it as a total disgrace.

But as long as it kept food on the table, he wouldn't complain. He headed to nearest bar to check out this weeks wanted posters. He knew there would be at least one of the vermin on the wanted posters in that bar.

The swordsman sat down near a group of thugs and looked at a bald man with thick and ragged red eyebrows wearing several bloody marine uniforms around his body. He looked at the board with the wanted posters. This man's name was Bundey Jack, wanted for larceny, destruction of property, and the homicide of several marines. Zoro drew his sword with intent to kill. Before he could though, another person appeared behind the target.

"Bundey Jack, you're coming with me"

The one who said this looked to be about 12 years old. He wore an old and beaten orange jumpsuit and had spiky dirty blonde hair. He was very skinny and looked like he had barely eaten in the past couple of weeks.

The gang of mountain bandits just chuckled in amusement at their young perpetrator before one who appeared to be a blob fish fishman got up and patted him on the top of the head with his slimy hands.

"How cute. The gaki is tryin' to play bounty hunter. Beat it kid and leave the bloody work to the adults"

But as soon as he had finished what he was saying he noticed something in the boy's pockets. A worn-out Konoha headband.

"Hey Bundey, this gaki's from Konoha"

When Zoro heard those words he tensed up, as he remembered the stories his master told him about the continental island shinobi from the South Blue. Most notably what had been going on Konoha for the past 12 years.

* * *

**_Flashback no Jutsu_**

"Hey Sensei, you've been looking at that weird cloth with metal bolted on it for a while, what's the deal with it?"

Koshiro was shocked that his young student would be so perceptive about the object he was holding. And despite the unbridled rage he felt when holding it he began to explain.

"This headband used to belong to a friend of mine, Kushina Uzumaki. She was a Konoha shinobi. You know what shinobi are right Zoro?"

"Yeah those ninja guys from the South Blue." Zoro quickly answered. He always found shinobi fascinating, especially the ones from Suna, because of their wind swords.

"Well Konoha hasn't been behaving very well in the past couple of years." Koshiro droned with a frown on his face.

"Whatta you mean sensei? I heard they've been doing really well for themselves since the slaying of the Kyuubi no Kitsune 8 years ago!"

"Thats on the surface. Only a few people know what goes on inside the once proud utopia. In truth the title of Hokage has had almost all power stripped from them. Nowadays all the power lies in the hands of the Civilian Council due to the political corruption from the Hokage's advisors and a Councilman Danzō Shimura. As such the civilians of the village have had their egos bloated to massive proportions. Even a few clans such as the Uchiha or the main branch of the Hyuuga Family have fallen victim to this sense of superiority. And from what I've heard the rumors about the Kyuubi being killed was a farce. Which would make sense as from all known logic as it's impossible to kill a demon" Koshiro monologued to his young student.

"Then what the hell happened to it Sensei" He asked curiously.

What he learned made him loose any respect for the nations of that continent. All he knew is that if he ever met that boy with the whisker marks on the side of his face he would take him to the East Blue to train under his master and have one of them eventually defeat Kuina in battle.

* * *

The swordsman's memories by Bundey speaking out in his rusty and menacing voice "Konoha's all the way down South Fuwafuwa. The only way he'd be here in the Land of Vegetables is if he's a Missing-Nin".

The blond child tensed up when the bandit said he could be a missing-nin. This unfortunatley didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh well, looks like I struck a nerve there. One thing I know is that even if its just a gennin Konoha typically pays a high price for its rouge shinobi. What do you say we go visit your old home brat? I'm sure they'll execute you quick!"

A panicked look spread across Naruto's face upon hearing this and his heart began to race, as a feeling of dread spread through his body. The blonde Jinchuuriki would rather die than return to Konoha and his eyes darted around looking for any avenue of escape. He knew that if he was returned home that the civilian council would have him executed, or worse returned back to his old team.

Before he could find a quick escape route though Fuwafuwa had body slammed him with his large sticky body and had begun swallowing him whole before he was finally consumed. Satisfied, the fishman looked down at his stomach and taunted.

"Nice try kid, but we're much to persistent to let a cash cow like you get away that easily. Don't worry I'll spit you back up as soon as we get to Konoha". He only had a few seconds to gloat before he felt his stomach get fuller. It kept getting bigger and bigger until it spread to his entire body creating a splitting pain.

And just as he thought he couldn't take much more of this, he exploded causing gallons of blood to splatter across the room. And in the center of all of it were several horrified looking Naruto's. In a flash of smoke all but one as gone.

Before he could think about what he just did, Naruto felt a painful cut in his back. He looked back to see a tall lanky man, with pine colored hair and two sickles, one tainted with blood.

"You'll pay for not taking fate like a good little freak. I Coovil the Mantis, former Konoha shinobi, before I was banished because of your possession over the Hokage, will now take my revenge for Fuwafuwa, my brother, and most importantly my career as a shinobi, Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

Coovil then lunged at him with intent to kill. Naruto quickly dodged and with fire in his eyes went for his open kunai pouch, and as if unsheathing and swinging a katana, cut open the insane man's throat.

"I AM NOT A DEMON!"

The banished ninja then fell to the floor before writhing and gasping for air, until he finally died.

After the jinchuriki's glare died down, he looked the man's corpse and the fishman's blood that was dripping down the stained wall of the bar. This sight turned Naruto's glare into a look of extreme disgust and guilt.

"What have I done. Oh dear Lord what have I done"

The distraught missing-nin felt a hard hand on shoulder. But it wasn't a hand of anger or hatred like he had felt so many times in the past. It was a hand of comfort and offering of friendship. The man's voice didn't represent that feeling.

"Don't worry kid. You get used to it real fast. It's never fun though, but you gotta do what you gotta do."

Naruto looked to where the stranger had gestured with the tilt of his head. Every other mountain bandit Naruto hadn't killed himself, had been slaughtered by Zoro. Including the once proud Bundey Jack

The green haired teenager picked up the dead body of Coovil and began walking towards the exit. He told the child to take the rest in. It would be impossible to take in Fuwafuwa though, as it after Naruto's escape there was no body left intact.

"By the way. How you slit this guy's throat with that knife was really clean and solid. You got potential to be an excellent swordsman. What's your name?"

He almost instantly replied "Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki"

"Roronoa Zoro. If you want to learn about the art of swordsmanship meet me by the blacksmith at 12 o'clock. We'll begin your training then".

* * *

Naruto didn't ponder much about the decision. It hadn't been since Haku he'd felt this way about someone. And besides, he was one of the few people in the world who believed he could do something other than screwing up, and the only person who believed him he could actually see.

When this thought drifted into his head he began thinking about the people back in Konoha who he could genuinely call his "precious people" as said by the aforementioned Haku.

'Jiji-Sama, Iruka-Sensei, Konohamaru, Hinata-Chan. Wait Hinata? Where did that come from?'

'Nowhere Naruto. And be sure to tell everyone that Ninja of Santoryu is the greatest story ever!' said a mysterious voice in his head. Heh heh

Moments later he saw Zoro walking this way with a gym bag. Naruto broke out of his thoughts and prepared for the training ahead. He had no idea if he would any good at the skill ahead, but Naruto wasn't one to turn down the first real training he'd gotten since Iruka.

"Alright this test will decide if you've got what it takes to be a swordsman. If you want to back out, now would be the time. If you start the test there will be no turning back."

The twelve year old wasn't deterred, and just nodded, surprising the swordsman with how determined he was. But then Zoro remembered the whiskers on the sides of his face, and that he had probably been through much worse shit then what he was about to go through.

"So your sure... Alright then let's begin." Zoro said before opening the bag and reaching in. He then tossed a bamboo sword to Naruto before arming himself with one.

"In order to become my student you have to beat me in battle with these bamboo swords. If you can't then you aren't worth my time."

At this challenge Naruto was immediately pumped up and armed his sword in a natural stance. It surprised his green haired opponent that he actually went into the basic stance solely on instinct. And without hesitation he charged.

"I'll take you down in one blow!"

This reminded Zoro of his first fight with Kuina and how well that ended up for him. Once Naruto was close enough to swing his sword, Zoro quickly swept it out of the way with his and smacked the jinchuriki on the head, and knocking him back with a cutting blow.

While this made him cough up some blood it didn't stop him from trying again with similar results. He then tried it again from a direction. That failed. He tried again. It failed. So he tried it again. That failed. So he tried once again. That failed. Again. Failed. Again. Failed. Again. Failed.

This went on for hours. 9 hours in fact to the point where it was dark outside, and Naruto had several bruises on his faces almost all of which were bleeding, while he was breathing heavily.

'How much more can this kid take? I expected him to be stubborn but this is just inhuman, especially for somebody as malnourished and young as he is.'

After about a minute more of this Zoro finally spoke out

"Why haven't you fallen yet? I've you so much that it would've killed a normal human! There's being determined and then there's just being plain stupid!"

Naruto just laughed with what little breath he had and grunted " Well Show-off-Sensei, I'm no ordinary human! But by the end of this night i'm gonna be a swordsman. Not just that, but I'm going to be the world's best swordsman!"

The amateur bounty hunter's eyes widened with shock after he heard the child's statement.

'He's just like how I was... Man my voice sucked back then..."

After that argument Zoro set down his bamboo sword, sitting down, and picking his ear.

" Alright i'm done. Your so persistent that if I don't call it quits now then this fight will probably go on forever. So congratulations you've passed the test. So meet me back here tomorrow. That's when we get your real sword and your training begins."

At hearing this Naruto immediately began jumping for joy, happy that he could reach new heights a warrior. However it didn't last long, because 30 seconds later he collapsed from exhaustion.

* * *

The training had been long and grueling for Naruto much like it had been for his teacher. He had to stand in the river with weights in his mouth while hitting dummies on his sides. He carried the same weights for running 50 laps around whatever village they had traveled to. He spared with Zoro, though every time it ended in defeat.

This didn't matter to him though. As long as he could get strong enough to move up to the next of three swords, he knew it would all pay off. And get stronger he did, as with 4 months he had completely mastered physical training to the point where he could knock down a man 5 times his size and weight.

In no time flat Zoro thought his orange loving pupil was ready to move up to learning the techniques. Which wasn't to hard because he had said, Naruto had real unlocked potential .The last guy must have sucked to not be able to bring that out when someone almost half his age could.

Within a month he had mastered Ichitoryu. With another month he had mastered Nitoryu. Santoryu however had been another story. He wasn't used to carrying one sword in his mouth and it threw him off balance. It took him three months to get it down and another three to learn all the techniques.

The relationship between student and teacher also grew in strength,much like a relationship between an older and younger brother. They had both told each other how they ended up traveling around the world seeking their own goals.

But after a year had past, Naruto had completed his training and was ready for his final exam. A true match against Zoro, the first one he'd had in a year. Both parties had armed their swords but not before their final conversation.

"Alright kid time to see if I'm a good teacher or a sucky one. You better not disappoint me!"

" Don't worry Zoro-Sensei, you've been a great teacher not a sucky one. Believe me I've had both". By this point Naruto's voice had deepened heavily but not to an adult level (Think Ichigo from Bleach's voice. Except it's coming out of Naruto) .

He then began charging towards his teacher like he did on year ago. Just like then Zoro swept it out of the way and delivered a stab of his own. Naruto used his own sword to block that strike and use his third sword to slash at Zoro's offensive sword knocking it out of his hand.

" Huh you've gotten better. But you still need some work before your ready to defeat me. This next strike will finish this fight".

Naruto moved into a defensive position as he knew when his Sensei said things like this he wasn't screwing around. Zoro held his two remaining swords in a parallel horizontal position before charging.

**"Nigiri"**

Naruto tried his best to hold his defensive position, but Zoro's strike was just to powerful and all three of his swords went flying out his mouth and sending him tumbling to the ground. When he looked up Zoro's Wado Ichimonji was pointed in his face.

"You've improved greatly but your training isn't complete yet."

At this Naruto gave a look of disappointment in himself before Zoro finished.

" But that's training I can't give you. It was fun traveling with you this year kid. I look forward to the day we meet in battle for the title of the worlds greatest swordsman."

Naruto saw his teacher and friend walking away he knew this would be the last time he saw him in a while so he followed.

" Wait Zoro-oniisan, there's something I'd like to give you" Naruto said as he took of his orange jumpsuit and handed it to him " Keep this as a reminder of our goals. The day we fight again I want you to give it back".

Zoro nodded a little teary eyed at the big brother suffix "Thanks kid. Just don't expect me to wear this thing." Zoro then ran off into the sunrise as fast as he could so as not it change his mind.

Naruto looked as his surrogate brother ran off into the distance and wondered what he would do next. Then his stomach started growling and he dug into his pockets to realize they were completly empty. He worried about how he was going to get food. But he turned his head to see the bar he and Zoro first met. He began unsheathing his swords one of which was leaking youkai before uttering

"What a disgrace. Time to start collecting!"

* * *

**(A/N): Man I'm surprised at how much success this story has been getting. It's been getting more attention than both if my other stories combined. And don't worry Zoro will appear again in an arc where the Naruto gets a mission to the new world. When will that be? Look forward to it. By the way I'll be holding a poll on the my profile to guess who's the main villain of the story. All of these guys will be a thorn in Naruto's side but only one will be the big bad. I already know who but I want to see what you think. Now it's time for a new segment i came up with!**

**Skillet's Question Corner:**

**This is a segment where I answer guest questions I can't answer through PM. First reviewer!**

**Peter Kim:"Why would Naruto wants to come back to Konioha that treated Naruto like hell? So Naruto became a bounty hunter, member or ex member of the Dragon's forces, pirate or a member or ex member of the World Government or the Marine or ex member of the Seven Warlords and Milhawk, etc replaces Narutp as a member of the Seven Warlord?"**

**Now this is a very good question Peter except for a part of the summary which answers your question for me "6 years later he's FORCED to return"**

**How so? You'll find out next time. Next Reviewer!**

**Guest 2: "Doesn't Zoro deserve a pairing?"**

**Yes he does! I'll take it into consideration. Thanks for your suggestion. And the final reviewer is...**

**NyaNyaKittyFace:"Ok I like it so far, I just wish the chapter was longer and got more done. When I started this I thought Naruto would at least get to the point were he met Zoro before you stops the chapter."**

**Well you got your wish :). Hope you enjoyed their interactions. And I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter which turned out to be my longest work yet.**

**. .**


	3. Fights for Freedom and an Unhappy Return

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then this would probably be thereal version of Naruto.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 2- Fights for Freedom and an Unhappy Return**

* * *

6 years had past since we had last seen our blonde orange loving swordsman. Nowadays he's a very different person. He now wore a navy blue overcoat, which when he kept the hood up, shadowed his eyes and nose similar to his masters bandanna. Though he only did this during battle, out of respect for his opponents. That is if he had respect for them. His height had reached to the point of Iruka by this point due puberty. His voice was nearly identical to Zoro's, and since he gave his jumpsuit away his pants no longer matched so he now wore ragged blue jeans and three katana in the place of his kunai and shuriken holder.

He had gotten into quite a bit of trouble with the world government two years ago for helping the Straw Hat Pirates free Nico Robin at Enies Lobby. He had fought a marine who ate the Cinder-Cinder Fruit. This fight burned his face and earned the name on his wanted posters.

_Cinderface Roronoa Naruto Reward: 50,000,000 beris_

Naruto walked into a bar to look for any one who might be criminals. He looked at the wanted posters and at the thugs in the bar. It was easy to pinpoint about 7 rats on the board with the ones in the pub. He drew his swords and went into an offensive position before charging.

**"Onigiri!"**

Within minutes all 7 thugs were unconscious and bleeding on the floor. The young swordsman took down his hood and went over the bar to get a drink. He knew he was 3 years too young to drink. But the brain damaging effects of the brew went right to the Kyuubi which would only make him drunk due to his immortality.

"Hey kid aren't you a little to young to be drinking sake like that." a lazy yet familiar voice droned towards the blonde bounty hunter.

" Only by about 3 years. And besides I'm already on the run from the marines so I don't have much to worry about"

He turned around to look at the man lecturing only to tense up and realize why he seemed so familiar. It was Kakashi,his favoritism using, former so-called sensei who was the straw that broke the camel's back 6 years ago.

"Well well, it isn't our naughty little runaway dobe Naruto. Time to come home and resume your role as Sasuke's rival. You've probably gotten at least a little stronger In your time away from what I've heard about the attack on Enies Lobby. But your most likely just as inferior to Sasuke as you once were. Oh well that doesn't matter now. Time to return ho-"

Because of these remarks found a sword pressed up against his neck. He looked up to see a very pissed off Naruto who looked like he could kill him any second. The swordsman looked down on the man with a sharp gaze. But something seemed of about him this time around. He knew Kakashi favored Sasuke, but their was at least some level of subtlety to the favoritsm, this was unreal. It was as if he wasn't the ex-ANBU at all.

"Tell me Kakashi. Why would I go back to a place that treated me like hell, let alone call it home. I do miss Iruka-Sensei and Jiji-Sama but the only way you could get me to go back there, is by force."

Naruto began walking out of the bar with Kakashi getting a mischievous look in his eye, before drawing out a kunai." Now now gennin. You best stop acting tough and show your true colors. We both know your still that No talent Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja from 6 years ago".

He barely had time to think before Naruto used the sword he was holding to sweep his kunai out of his hand and into the ground. " If you're gonna try a sneak attack do it on someone who's dumb enough to fall for it."

Kakashi stumbled to the ground after hearing the killing intent in his former "students" voice and began to try and mumble out another lecture before he was picked up by the scruff of his shirt.

"Don't try an lecture me cyclops. If you want me to come back to Konoha you'll have to beat me in a fight. Meet me outside this bar after I drop off these losers to the marines." Naruto then picked up the unconscious bodies of his bounties and stuffed them down his hood, much to the shock of Kakashi and the bartender. The most shocking thing was that when they went down it was like they weren't their anymore.

* * *

The two opponents faced each other in the dirt arena drawn into the ground with the sheath of a sword. Naruto drew two of his swords into a nitoryu position while Kakashi just pulled his book out with an aloof look on his face.

"I see your reading that damn book again. I feel like I should give a quick warning, reading that book during this fight will very likely cost you your life."

Kakashi remained uncaring and merely taunted "Meh I wouldn't worry to much about it. Just like 6 years ago with your sucky attacks it shouldn't matter if I'm reading"

Instantly after he finished speaking the book was bisected right down the spine and Kakashi had to duck from an incoming sword. He threw several shuriken at Naruto, all of which were quickly deflected. The jounin retreated and made several handsigns before yelling

" **Earth Style: Rock Shower**"

He placed his palms on the ground causing several cannonball-sized spheres of rock to fly at out at the swordsman. Naruto unsheathed his third sword and began cutting into all of them before none remained

" You know Kakashi you really should announce your attack while you use it instead of before like this" Naruto gloated to a stunned Kakashi while sheathing the sword in his left hand. "Like this". Naruto then began charging and spinning towards his former leader eventually going into midair.

"**Rhino Cycle"**

By the time Kakashi heard the title he was already being attacked mercilessly by the two swords and knocked out of the rectangle and into a tree.

" Looks like I win Kakashi. If the village wants their scapegoat back, they should damn well bring an army next time."

Kakashi didn't really care that he was out of the rectangle,he was going to win this fight so Sasuke could get into the Chunin Exams. He was finally old enough to participate and he wasn't going to let the dead last ruin it with a temper tantrum. So he pulled out his sharingan before saying.

**"Wind Style: Gale Palm"**

The sneak attack struck Naruto in the back. Or the log that appeared in Naruto's place. Kakashi then gave a "through screwing around look" and brought his hands together in a very familiar position. He used his sharingan to figure out where Naruto was hiding and began with a running start to jump into the trees. The sharingan looked odd though as it looked more maroon than the usual crimson.

Moments later Naruto popped out only sword that was leaking youkai in a strangely offensive position. _'Heh just as I thought. If he was smart he would've used a defensive position. Just goes to show you that some people just never change. I can't wait to show both one-eyed fools the heads of their students after the exams.'._

**"Lightning Slicer"**

It appeared that Kakashi had the upper hand. But the moment Kakashi's hand met with sword the attack was nullified. '_Nice try scarecrow,but it's my turn so say goodbye!" _Somwhere on an expedition to the leaf a 21 year old man wearing face paint sneezed.

**"Ittoryu: Lion's Strike"**

Naruto than pounced to the ground with Kakashi falling a few seconds after him. With a sheath of his sword the blond headed hunter began walking out in to the distance.

"This match is over Kakashi-teme. Don't get up again or the next time I aim for your heart."

The downed and bleeding Jonnin could only push himself up and look at the man walking away from him and think _'Damn that Zoro. Thanks to him he's gotten to strong for his own good, and our plots are in jeporady. Looks like I'll have to go with plan B.'_

"Fine Naruto, you can leave if you want to, and carry on with your bounty hunting. But keep in mind the Civilian Council gave me leverage for what would happen if you didn't return to help Sasuke with his quest."

Upon hearing this Naruto tensed up and turned his head in the direction of the words "What the hell do you mean by that Kakashi-teme?".

"Iruka has been doing well for himself in the past years you've been gone. Married a nice woman, and had a beautiful girl. It would be such a shame if something were to happen to him and you weren't their to protect him? And what of Konohamaru. Little children are quite prone for accidents now aren't they?"

He only had a few seconds before Naruto was behind him with another sword. But unlike last time there was something about this sword. Something that felt evil. "Tell me Kakashi. What's stopping me from killing you right here and right now?"

Despite the cold chill going down his spine from Naruto's voice, Kakashi continued."Simple, I told them if I'm not back in three days to drop the ax. And the best part, they don't even know that their lives are in danger. Iruka could be playing piggy back with his daughter today and 6 feet under tommorow. So what is it Naruto?"

One could here the teeth of the swordsman grinding together before he finally spoke out "Fine you win I'll return to Konoha. But on my conditions and my conditions only. If their are any civilian mobs trying to kill me again I won't hesitate to slaughter every last one of them. And I'll only stay if I lose the chunin exams. If I'm promoted then I get to take leave to seek my own goals."

"Then I think we have a deal. We should get going right now Naruto. The civilians will be happy you're back!" Kakashi lied blatantly once again.

"Yeah they love me. The scars and burns on my back prove it, and they aren't from Enies Lobby, Kakashi-teme."

"Upbupbup. Now that you're apart of Team 7 again you have to show me respect. So do it. Call me Sensei."And for the third time that day Kakashi had a sword pressed up against his neck.

"Don't push me teme. There are only two people in the his world I'll ever call Sensei, and you aren't either of them. Now let's get to the leaf before I decide to change my mind about keeping you alive!"

Naruto then pulled out his old Konoha headband and placed his hand on the center of the symbol. He focused all of his chakra into it for 3 full minutes. When he was finally done,what was revealed wasn't the leaf symbol, but a Z with a vertical double-sided arrow going through it.

While this was going on the Jonnin was speaking into a communicator hidden from plain sight. "Alright Lord Danzō, the demon's fooled. He actually thinks I'm that one-eyed fool who was moved a by a dumb little pep-talk from Sarutobi. Soon Sasuke-sama will be chunin and the demon will be dead by my stolen lightning slicer."

* * *

It had taken till about noon before these pair of enemies had made it to the north gate of Konoha. Naruto had been in a horrible mood this entire way. Kakashi however was joyful that his missing "student" was back. Not only was a stepping stone for Sasuke back in its place, but now the Sandaime would stop threatening to burn all of his Icha Icha books for not finding him right away.

"Alright Naruto, we should be meeting your team, so you better put on that jumpsuit and meet us at the bridge."

"No can do. I gave my jumpsuit away 5 years ago." Naruto said while putting his hood up, most likely so no civilians would recognize him as the hood usually covered up most of his distinguishing features.

"Now if you excuse me I've got some personal business to take care of. See you around Kakashi-teme".

Naruto then ran past the main gates and towards the academy with the fake Kakashi very annoyed with the swordsman's resistance and Kotetsu and Izumo were shocked and amazed at the changes the former goofball had brought with him.

* * *

"IRUKA-SENSEI! I DON'T WANNA RUN! RUNNING IS FOR DEAD LASTS LIKE RENJĀ!"

"Now Mêi we all need to run so we can get strong enough to make our village proud. Don't you want that?"' Iruka implored his preteen student, who so far had been the top kunoichi for the class.

"I DON'T WANNA BECOME A NINJA FOR THOSE DUMB REASONS ONLY IDIOTS WOULD FOLLOW! I WANT TO BECOME A NINJA TO BE NEAR TO ZHÊN-KUN!" the young white haired girl said, or rather screamed.

At this the 28 year old school teacher pinched the bridge of his nose before activating his signature "Big Head Jutsu".

**"GET RUNNING BEFORE I BURY YOU!"**

Once she saw this the arrogant child began running towards the track at light speed. When he was sure wasn't going to come back, he laid down on the nearest bench with a sigh.

For 15 long years it had been the same old thing since he had been given the position of teaching the new recruits. An arrogant Rookie of the Year, a Hyperactive Dead-Last, and a Top Kunoichi with the wisdom of an acorn.

You think he'd enjoy the dead lasts but they only reminded him of Naruto. But a few things had gone well for him in the past couple of years. He was able to bring his relationship with Anko out of the shadows, despite numerous complaints from civilians and parents alike, and have a young girl named Naifū who greatly took after her mother except her hair was a dark brown like her father.

_'After all these years, I still can't help but wonder what happened to him'_

Just then he heard deep and rough footsteps heading his way. He turned around to see a mysterious looking hooded man who was slightly taller than him with three swords on his left side. Iruka didn't know who this guy was, but a disguised person with an unusual amount of weapons entering a school was typically bad news.

He opened up his weapons pouch and entered an attack of killing intent." Listen you creep, I don't what your doing here or why you have all those swords but you better not have any malicious intent, cause I don't want the kids to see their Sensei kill a man during a class!"

To the teachers surprise the hooded man only smiled and said " Relax Iruka-sensei I din't kill kids. I only hurt them with the flats of my blades, and that's when they annoy me." Iruka looked very confused at the sensei comment before the stranger took his hood off to reveal his favorite student by far, who he had not seen since that day in the Hokage's office. Uzumaki Naruto had returned.

**(A/N): Sorry this chapter took so much longer than the others but the reason I had a lot more work to do on this one was... Wait, what do you mean Im only halfway done! I gotta write more! But I'm so hungry... YOU'RE GONNA DO WHAT TO ME! Fine I'll finish the chapter... Just don't make me read NaruSasu yaoi...**

The chunin looked at his former student with great surprise, his mouth gaping wide open. This only lasted a few moments before Iruka nailed Naruto in the stomach with a fist. Despite the strength of the attack the swordsman only looked a little fazed.

"Damn it Naruto! Where the hell were you all these years!"

Naruto just gave a nervous smirk and joked "Same old, same old Iruka-sensei. Causing trouble and breaking shit. Just like the old days. But with a lot more collateral than just painting the Hokage monument this time around" while holding up his wanted poster.

Iruka noticed something about the poster that was a major difference that was something new that came from the 6 year journey across the world. Naruto's first name had changed from Uzumaki to Roronoa. The last name of a criminal known throughout the world. He decided not to say anything on the subject for fear of upsetting him. Instead he mentioned something else.

"So judging by the katana I'd say your a trained swordsman. Where'd you learn the techniques"

Naruto noticed the nervousness on his old teacher and friends face and responded with a smile " Like you didn't read the words on the wanted poster you big jerk. And to be fair I'd much rather be out looking for him and Mihawk then here. The only reason I am here is cause I got blackmailed with a buster call."

He looked shocked at the mention of one of the Shichibukai but before he could ask Naruto began leaving the playground "Sorry that I gotta leave so early into our conversation but there's someone else I gotta see today before hell begins. See you around".

"Alright best wishes for the exams say hi to Hinata for me" Iruka teased as his now blushing student frantically ran off. Over time Naruto had rethought his relationship with the Hyuuga girl and developed small feelings for her, but he didn't like to talk about it much as he had little to no experience with love and was worried about screwing things up. And thus with a sigh the teacher sat back down .

Little did they know a young man about Naruto's age with black hair and very pale skin was watching from the trees with a fake smile." So this the infamous Demon of Konoha also known as Cinderface in most other parts. While he doesn't appear to be much his attitude and skill could be a thorn in Lord Danzō's plans. I should keep a close on eye on him and anyone he holds dear". The man opened up a sketchpad to reveal drawings of an unhooded Naruto and Iruka.

* * *

In an alley way near the meeting bridge a young genin was walking battered and bruised with his two teammates who didn't look much better than he did. His name was Konohamaru Sarutobi,a 13 year old genin who had just gotten beaten up by Sakura for defending Naruto...again. While the pink haired annoyance was by no means a strong kunoichi she was still strong enough to beat up those younger than her.

"Konohamaru, if we're going to stop this problem we'll have to have do it ourselves, cause pretty much every civilian loves Sakura, and judging by what they did to him the odds of Naruto coming back are about 200:1." his math loving friend Udon tried to reason with him.

This only put him off more "Damn it Udon! You know I don't understand you're fancy math talk!" His yelling was stopped by a hooded man walking besides them apparently not noticing them.

The Sarutobi boy had felt that he had seen this guy before and from what he could tell Udon had sensed this too. Moegi however just looked flat out lovestruck. This wasn't anything new to either of them, as this usually happened when she met an attractive guy. So Konohamaru got that look in his eye when he was about to do something insane, which he inherited from his old boss. He turned to his teammates and said

"What do you say we find out a little bit more about this mystery guy!"

Naruto was walking down the alleyways of Konoha with his hood up once again looking for the ramen stand. Though many things had changed about the blond one thing that hadn't was his taste for ramen and even after 6 years he could still say that they had the best ramen he's tasted. But his venture came to a halt when he heard a shuffling noise from behind him. He looked behind him to see a rock in the shape of a square, which caused him to go deadpan.

_'That is quite literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen from myself or anyone else.'_

In response to this, Naruto drew out one of swords which still had its sheath on it and gently tapped the box causing it to explode. When the smoke cleared there laid the Konohamaru brigade, covered in smoke and ashes.

When the swordsman saw who was under the poorly made and thought out disguise he smiled at the one in the center " So it's you brat. I probably should've realized it earlier considering how many times you did this back when I lived here."

"What the hell are you talking about! I've never even met you before you big jerk!"

At this the man took off his hood, and when he saw what was under it he began crying tears of joy and hugged him "Boss where were you all this time. Things have gotten even worse around here for you while you were away. People have been trash talking you and screwing with your apartment and stuff!"

This didn't seem to faze him to much like the punch from earlier that day "Relax kid, while most your age don't seem to know it this kind of thing happened all the time back then. And if they're still doing this kind of thing then that shows they haven't learned a bit. Where as I have learned a lot, meaning those morons are all clearly outmatched."

"Well if you've really as good as you say you have, then why don't you prove it, righthere, right now! What do you say to a game of ninja" Konohamaru said with a smirk.

"Alright, Alright but as long as I'm allowed to keep my hood up so nobody recognizes me. I'm a grown man you now!

But as they were talking another presence approached. A more evil, annoying presence with a giant forehead "Ninja playing ninja ? That's so lame. And you call yourself shinobi". Sakura hadn't changed much over the years. She wore a typical schoolgirl uniform as she thought the normal outfit that was typical for kunoichi as she thought it was to unattractive for "her Sasuke-kun". Her pink hair was also as long as it was 6 years ago with more angle to it.

"Great you I hoped I wouldn't run into for at least till tommorow"Naruto griped. One of the many things that had changed about him was his feelings for Sakura, which went from a huge crush to a burning hatred for the pink haired disgrace.

"What the hell are you talking about buster, I've never seen you before in my life! Shows how good of a ninja you are when you're to ashamed to even wear the leaf headband. Sasuke-kun could wipe the floor with you."

Naruto simply scoffed "Please, that loser's pretty much a world noble in disguise as a shinobi. The only thing the Uchiha's actually earned was the tree walking exercise and a good slap across the face."

This comment steamed the pink haired girl beyond belief. She raised her fists and charged in one of the most pathetic fashions ever seen by human eyes "Time to pay asshole. Prepare to feel the wrath of Sasuke Uchiha's future wife!". This attack got her kicked into a tree almost instantly ending the so called match.

"Yeah go boss. You showed that pink haired forehead monster who's boss around here!" Konohamaru cheered for his idol and partial mentor. Unfortunately the forehead comment struck a nerve with the barely conscious Sakura.

"What did you say to me!"

She immediately gave chase to the Konohamaru Brigade while Naruto stood behind and began to slowly follow. When he arrived at a certain point Sakura, Moegi, and Udon were standing worried and Konohamaru was being held up by the scruff of his neck by a man wearing a black cat uniform wearing purple war paint. Behind him was a dirty blonde girl with her hair pulled back into four pigtails and a giant fan on her back.

"You've got a lot of nerve bumping into me like that gaki. I never really liked kids that much so don't try to worm your way out of this." Kankuro said to his victim visibly annoyed.

Sakura then began begging "Please he didn't mean anything by it, he was just being a dobe not looking where he was going. Just set him down so I can beat him up."Kankuro didn't looked very moved by this statement and merely pinned him down, with his fist raised.

"Alright halfpint, time to take your medicine"

His fist only moved a few inches before it came to a halt, as he felt something pressed up against the back of his neck. "Put the brat down makeup boy or otherwise i've just found a new pincushion."

Kankuro immediately loosened his grip once the killing intent hit him. He knew this killing intent, cause he felt it everyday, and it frightened him to no end that somebody else could have it too. "Alright you win, take your little brother and go." his words were cut short when he felt a small pain on the back of his head.

"What are you sand village worms doing here in the leaf?" Sasuke said up in the tree while Sakura cheered him on while Temari ogled both him and Naruto.

That didn't stop her from explaining while her brother was still frozen from the fear of Naruto killing him " If you must now we're here for the chunin exams. Since our last member is 18 this is the first year we've been able to compete. But what I'm more concerned about is why this village has Roronoa Naruto in it's genin rank."

Sasuke eyes widened when he heard the name as well as Sakura's, while Naruto just gave an annoyed glare to the sand kunoichi. But before he could say anything another body of killing intent arrived " Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village. Let's leave these fools. The only one worth our time is the hooded one."

These words pissed Sasuke off to unbelievable levels _'How dare that no name red headed loser compare me, an Uchiha to a low life dobe like Naruto, much less say he's better than me'. _In order to prove his point he made in his head, he charged at Gaara with a fire justsu.

**" Fire Style: Flaming Hammer"**

Gaara didn't look very worried,in fact he looked kind of excited judging by the anxious look in his eye. But before Sasuke could get close enough to do some serious damage, Naruto pulled out his crimson tinted sword, which once again completely nullified the attack.

"Tell me swordsman, what's your name?" Gaara asked while his siblings stopped fearing him and looking at him like he was crazy for not knowing who this guy was.

"Roronoa Naruto."

"Gaara no Sabaku. So your the Cinderface, well Roronoa mother wants your blood. I look forward to when she gets it" the team of siblings then walked a way to their hotel room for tommorow's exams.

Once they were out of sight Sasuke turned to his enemy and said"Give me that sword dobe, a sword of that power should be in the hands of an elite and not some orphan whose parents left him the gutter because they knew he was going to be worthless loser!"

"Yeah Sasuke-kun deserves that sword much more than a worthless loser like you Naruto!" Sakura quickly agreed with her crush.

Though Naruto was pissed off at them for the hurtful insults he didn't really show it and instead fought back " Sorry teme but you couldn't carry the weight of this sword, let alone any sword."

"If you won't give me the sword, then I'll take it dobe!" the Uchiha brat grabbed the sword by the handle, but when it did it burned his hand in the second degree. He screamed in pain falling back onto the ground.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto you bastard, what did you do to him!

Naruto remained stoic and replied "I didn't do anything, the sword did. I'm the only one who can touch it without getting burned. Now if you excuse me I'me going to go eat dinner to recover from this migraine of a day".

The swordsman walked off with the brigade running in the opposite direction while Sakura was occupied with the injured Sasuke. He wasn't happy to be back at all, but he decided he would enjoy the things he did love about the shithole. And besides, he wasn't one to turn down a challenge of skill.

* * *

**(A/N): Sorry this chapter took so much longer than the others but the reason I had a lot more work to do on this one was... Wow déjà vu. It was cause this was the most story driven and it set up the next arc in the story. This is going to be showing the growth of the characters over 6 years, like how they've gotten better or worse. And who knows, there might even be a devil fruit power or two. And no I'm not going to follow the canon exams exactly. I'm throwing in a few of my own touches to make it more interesting. But enough foreshadowing it's time for!**

**Skillet's Question Corner:**

**Peter White:**

**"Forced to return and then leaves by force by killing a lot of people in Konoha including Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura!"**

**Ok I know that's technically not a question and it's more of a suggestion but I really don't think i'm going to do something like that. This might be a bashing fic but i'm not going to far like that. Sorry but that's one suggestion I just won't take. Thnx for it though.**

**Guest 6:**

**"was hoping 17 or 19 year olds Zoro here"**

**Sorry but I had to keep him 15 in order to fit in with continuity of One Piece. Hope that doesn't hurt your reading experience .**

**And the final question is**

**Guest 5: **

**"I can't wait to see how badass Naruto will turn out to be. Thank you Zoro for being so awesome!"**

**Zoro says your welcome! **

**See you soon, and enjoy the first arc!**


	4. Old Faces and New Trials

**Disclaimer:**

**Cedric: Skillet28561 doesn't own Naruto or One Piece. If he did I would slaughter every character and sell all of their souls to my friends on the other side.**

**Kurama: Hey I was supposed to do the disclaimer this chapter, you bastard! I'm gonna kill you for taking my spot!**

**Cedric: Bring it on you glorified innkeeper!**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 3: Old Faces and New Trials**

**WARNING: Before reading this chapter you might want to reread chapter 3. Due to lack of sleep due to reading to many creepypasta I forgot a subplot involving Root capturing Kakashi and impersonating him that was supposed to start last chapter, so I edited the chapter with that plot.**

It had taken hours for Naruto to get any sleep his first night in his old apartment. The walls were crumbling and the plumbing was either boiling hot or freezing cold depending on the time of year. He had always told himself that it was better than living like an urchin before. But during his career as a bounty hunter he had slept outside on the streets and in the woods and had become accustomed living both ways.

And besides, many of the thugs who lived in the nearby apartments were actually very kindhearted people who saw him as the Kyuubi's jailer rather than the beast itself, especially compared to the regular civilians, or some of the thugs he'd encountered on his journey.

But while he laid in his bed he heard a noise coming from the room. Since the door hadn't been opened he knew it couldn't have been the landlady since she'd have used the door. He looked at the window and saw that it had been busted. Naruto knew exactly what this meant.

He grabbed his sword he slept by, in case of an event like this. Within an instant he was "pinned down" by a civilian man " You took my son away from me demon. It's time to pay for it".

Naruto had unsheathed his katana and slashed it into his chest causing him to fall to the ground. The blonde didn't waste anytime before picking up the bleeding man and opening the broken window. He whispered "I showed you mercy by letting you live. The next time you or any other dumbass tries a stunt like this, I will slit their throat." before dropping the man out into the darkness.

_'They'll be back. They'll always be coming back. If any good is having to compete in these exams I'll get some time away from having to throw some idiot out a window. Honestly, this was the third time tonight alone.'_

This was his final thought before drifting off into a deep dreamless sleep.

* * *

Morning had come to Konoha with a sunrise at about 7 am. Several genin teams that were finally old enough to enter the exams, had just decided to take them, or were repeat entries that had failed previous exams.

But there was one specific team that we're focusing on for now. Thankfully soon all we'll be focusing on for most of the story is one of them, because the other two are extremely annoying. This team was Team 7 consisting one the few surviving members of the Uchiha clan and village equivalent of our worlds Justin Bieber without the ear-bleedingly bad songs, Sasuke Uchiha, the top Kunoichi of her class and one of the weakest ninja in the history of the South Blue, Sakura Haruno, and master swordsman and former bounty hunter wanted for crimes against the World Government, Naruto Uzumaki.

They were meeting at the Meeting Bridge, they're old normal meeting spot. So far only Sasuke and Sakura had made it. While Sakura was happy to get away from Naruto and spend time with "her Sasuke-kun", while the aforementioned was inwardly begging for "the dobe" to get here.

Luckily for what little sanity the Uchiha heir possesed, Naruto arrived. "Naruto-baka you're late!" Sakura screeched.

"Don't yell at me dumbass. You're the one who didn't give me the time of the meeting. Let's just go get this over with." Sakura's face drew a blank as she couldn't come up with a proper arguement for and just followed with a glare.

After about ten minutes they had arrived at their destination, The Konoha Chunin Exam Facility. Each major village in the continent had one for when the exams came to them and the leaf was no different.

This one was a giant building standing at over 800 feet tall with a platinum shine to it. There were several shadows behind the skyscraper such as what appeared to be a forest with a much smaller tower in the middle. "Huh, Konoha's been busy the past 6 years I've been gone. Wait where the hell's the door?"

As Naruto had just stated there didn't appear to be a door to the large tower, instead at the front was a sign that read

_The Entrance is 50 stories high up. In order to enter the exams you must climb or walk up to the entrance._

"You've gotta be kidding me! How the hell are we climb 50 stories without running out of chakra" Sakura yelled without thinking of possible other options such as her teammates had been doing since they read the sign.

The blonde had formulated a strategy and answered first "Simple. We don't use our chakra to get up there". Within minutes Naruto had unsheathed two of his swords and began climbing the tower.

"That's the dumbest plan ever dobe. We should obviously tree-walk one half and climb the other!" The Uchiha berated his rival, despite the fact that his method had gotten him a quarter up the path in 30 seconds.

Sakura, being the brainless fangirl she was instantly agreed with him "'You're right Sasuke-kun, you always have the best ideas. Naruto's such a baka!"

The two the began focusing chakra into their feet and walking up the massive wall before them. This took them about 15 tedious minutes as opposed to Naruto's 5, so when the two finally made it to the top Naruto was already their "Did you guys take a wrong way up the tower or something?"

"Oh shut up Naruto" Sakura panted with what little breath she had.

Once they were inside and had filled out every form to enter. The man who was glaring at Naruto as he filled out the papers told them to go to floor 70, the highest floor. When they arrived to the elevator there was no elevator at all. Instead there was a giant rock climing climbing wall.

"You've got to be kidding me! It's bad enough we had to use all our chakra climbing up to the entrance 50 stories high, and now we've gotta climb another 20 stories!" yelled the pink harpy.

Naruto merely gave a glare to the complaint and said "Suck it up dumbass, we'll just have to keep moving forward if we wanna get through this." before climbing up the wall at a breakneck speed.

"For once the dobe is right Sakura. He may suck at life, but at least he's good to work with unlike you". This insult from her crush sent Sakura into another depression while the Uchiha teenager preceded to climb up the wall.

Back then this would cause Naruto to ask Sakura out, to which she would violently reject. But now he could care less about what happened to her. This caused a rather insane thought to drift into the young girls head.

_'That damn Naruto is just acting like this so i'll go out with him! Of course. Well it's not going to work. When I get up there with him and my Sasuke-kun I'm gonna punch him in the face and show him what a worthless loser he is!'_

Sakura started climbing up the rock wall as fast as she could in order to complete this goal. Unfortunately for her this wasn't very fast. But she eventually made it up after about ten minutes where Naruto and Sasuke were already waiting, glaring at each other with a deep hatred. The moment she saw his whiskered face she clenched her fist and charged.

"NARUTO! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

This was anticipated though as Naruto stepped to the side causing Sakura to miss fantastically and slide down the hallway where she met with a different scene. Two guards about her age were blocking the door, causing a huge crowd to form around the scuffle between a slightly older genin team and the guards.

"We climbed 70 stories for this! Why won't you let us through?" said a bun haired girl wearing a white blouse and baggy red pants, with several scrolls attached to her waist. The ones blocking the door looked awfully familiar to most of the leaf shinobi in the crowd, but most just brushed it off.

"You wimps will never be strong enough for the exams. You should just go home and cry to your mommies." The examiner with the bandage said before he was slashed into by a gray blur and falling unconscious.

Everyone in the room looked at Naruto like he had several screws loose for doing what he had just did "What the hell Naruto! You just fricking killed that guy!" Sakura screeched at her teammate causing most of the crowd to wince from splitting headaches.

"I didn't kill him, I missed all of his vitals so all he needs is a trip to the hospital." This didn't help the other guard who was standing next to him.

"What the heck is wrong with you, you psycho!" Izumo screamed at him with great fear and shock on his face. Naruto remained stoic however and responded.

"Your calling me a psycho? Your the one who tried to use a stupid trick like a bad genjutsu. That sign says we're on the 70th floor, but I only counted 19 floors while I was climbing up here.

"While most in the crowd gave a look of realization, one odd looking male gave a look of excitement, like he had just been given a challenge. But a few like Sasuke, gave the swordsman an envious and angered look.

"Don't be ridiculous dobe, if there was really something that big, an Uchiha would have learned of it first, and not a worthless loser like you!" Sasuke claimed trying to put the glory from his teammate on to him.

Sakura followed suit with her crush "Yeah, stop trying to sound smart when your really just an idiotic loser. Sasuke would've been the one to notice it if it was really there!" Izumo however, just gave a defeated sigh and admitted "Sorry pinky, but your teammate is completely right." before releasing the genjutsu and the transformation revealing him to be one of the guards at the north gate.

"Nice job Naruto, your perceptiveness has improved greatly, you and everyone else here have almost passed the enterance exam. Just head to the elevator that's where you'll receive your final test before it truly begins."

Most including Sakura looked like they were going to complain but Izumo picked up Kotetsu and rushed to the infirmary before anyone could. So the teams just decided to head down to head down the hallway to the elevator. But one team from Iwa continued to follow Naruto with killing intent leaking out of their pores. This didn't go unnoticed.

"I know your there dumbasses."

The "team" turned around to see several weapons coming their way, all of which were blocked by katana "Why the hell are you here following us? Don't you have anything better to do, like go to the elevator?"

Their leader gave Naruto an arrogant smirk and rasped "Oh we are going to make it to the elevators so we can become chunin! But only after we teach you a lesson for making us look stupid in front of the examiners!". Naruto gave a glare to his enemies and went into an Onigiri position. But before he could complete the attack, a foreign voice rang out.

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

Within seconds all 3 of the Iwa genin were unconscious on the floor and an odd looking boy with bushy eybrows, a soup bowl haircut and green spandex in the middle of it.

_"So fast. Does this guy have devil fruit power or something?"_

_"He looks like such a weirdo. Sasuke-kun could take him on anyday!"_

_"Where did he get such power. It should belong to me!"_

"I am Rock Lee. You are Sakura, I presume?" He asked her causing her to look a little confused. "Please be my girlfriend. I vow that I will protect you with my life!".

She immediately reviled and screamed " No way. Your a weirdo!".

Upon hearing this Lee fell down and sulked in typical anime fashion for about 10 seconds until he got up an said "It's fine. That's not the only reason i came here. Roronoa Naruto, you were your classes dead last but if you a 50,000,000 beri bounty on your head than your far from a dead last. I was the dead last of the class before you, and I want to see if my fists can beat your swords. I challenge you to a duel!"

"Sorry Bushy-Brows but we should probably save our strength for the upcoming exams. But I will fight you when the exams are over. That's a promise." Naruto declined his request.

Though he looked slightly disappointed, he almost instantly shook it off and cheered " Ok then. If we cannot fight here, then I shall make you my eternal rival!"

"Ummm...What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yes! I have finally have a true eternal rival! I can't wait to tell Gai-Sensei! He yelled excitedly before another shinobi about his age showed up. Something was very familiar about this guy which Naruto pinned instantly.

He was a a member of the Hyuuga clan judging by the clear lavender eyes, who had long dark brown hair which was tied in a loose ponytail, with a one button white shirt as well as white pants and a dark gray apron. The bun haired girl from earlier was also there.

"Lee, stop chatting with the competition, we need to get going in order to make it before the first exam begins, otherwise they won't let us in!"

"Hai, Neji" Lee gave a nice guy stance and ran off to follow his team towards their elevator, and team 7 followed. Inside the elevator, where the buttons should be there was absolutely nothing. In the center of the room there was a large metal wire, and in the back there was a sign that said

_'Tug the wire to pull the elevator up to the final floor"_

Sakura didn't take this very well to say the least " We've gotta do more work to get to the exams! Are you kidding me?"

"The guard said there would be one more test before we can officially enter the exam dumbass. Now move out of the way so we can get this shit over with." Naruto countered her whining.

"Please dobe, like somebody as weak you would be able to even lift the elevator, much less pull it up a story." Sasuke once again insulted his teammate, not knowing that a few seconds later he would send up the elevator up with one pull before it slowed down with a lock and the ding of an elevator.

Naruto just gave the heir a boasting glare before heading off into the room. Little did he know something much bigger than the exams was happening with his return.

* * *

Two figures were standing in a dome shaped room. One had bandages covering most of his body, with pale brown hair and a wrinkled face and was standing before a giant bloody post. The one that was tied to post didn't seem to be in very good shape, as he had been beaten and tortured by the jutsu of the man in front of him. He had silver hair and two different looking eyes, one that was a sharingan. The lower half of his face was covered by a mask for reasons that nobody really knew except for himself.

"This is the power of the great and mighty Kakashi of the Sharingan. So pathetic, if you truly lived up to your title you would have broken out of here when we put you in here 6 years ago"

Despite the numerous insults from the members of Root over the years he'd been a political prisoner, Kakashi had been silent. Likely out of shame for his past actions. Obitō. Rin. Minato. Naruto. Every time he would lose someone he had to protect, because of his own stupidity. He tried to go looking for him when he had his epiphany. Sadly for him, this took Sarutobi demoting him to Tobetsku Jonin and getting the cold shoulder from most of the other Jonin, even Gai. But Danzō started sending Root after him during his mission, but he managed to kill all but one. The one that looked exactly like Obitō. He was released from his thoughts from another punch to the chest.

"Pay attention to me when I'm talking to you, demon-loving piece of shit! To think I wouldn't have had to send Fū to impersonate you, if you had just followed your goals as Uchiha-sama's teacher instead of trying to look for that demon trash"

Just then static could be heard behind Danzō on the two monitors behind them. Two figures were displayed on the screens before them. One appeared two be a very snake like man with long black hair, while the other was an odd looking man with swirl shaped wrinkles on his face and a hole on the left side.

"Excuse me Kakashi, but I have to take this" Danzō said while walking up to the monitor "Hello men, I assume your missions are going well?".

The wrinkled one answered first "Yes Danzō, I've made it inside the organization to learn more about this man with the rinnegan and how we can retrieve it from him and the sharingan from Itachi."

"I have ssssuccessssssfully procured the package, and I plan to deliver it to Ssssasssuke-kun during the sssssecond exam while under dissssguissse" the snake like man reported to Danzō "Now what of your progressssss Danzō?"

"I have used the image of Kakashi Hatake to trick the demon fox back into the village so he can make Uchiha-sama chunin before we turn him back into the demon,and use him as our weapon to destroy all those who'd challenge us!" Danzō responded to his snakelike partner.

But with a smirk he explained one of his side plans "But just to make sure he knows who's boss, I'll have to set an example for what will happen if he tries to go against us. Sai!"

"Yes, Danzō-sama?" Sai had instantly appeared

"I need you to take a job for me. Here's what you have to do" Though the corrupt politician was whispering in his servants ear, it was still loud enough for Kakashi to hear. His eyes widened at hearing what Danzō had planned for his target.

"Danzō you can't! He isn't just important to Naruto, but he's important to the rest of the village as well. Think of how many people would be affected!" Kakashi pleaded with his captor, though it became obvious that it fell on deaf ears when a knife went into a vein in his arm. A few seconds after it did, Kakashi felt himself get drowsy.

With a grin Danzō gloated "I know you were thinking of breaking out to save him. But that knife is laced with an incredibly powerful sedative that lasts for 14 days. By the time you've woken up, that man will already be dead."

Kakashi felt an unbelievable amount of rage coursing through his veins. Though there wasn't much he could do about it since he was almost under. Before slipping into the unconsciousness the Jonin yelled out one last thing "Damn you bastard. May the kyuubi demon bury you in the dessert, you piece of trash!"

**(A/N): You know, I could just end it off here, but I already tried that last time and I'm not going through the yaoi punishment again...uggh**

* * *

The room in front of them was filled with several other shinobi from Konoha and foreign nations. Most of them appeared to be several timers who didn't look like they wanted any rookies threatening their position.

_"Man this is a freakshow! Good thing I have Sasuke-kun to protect me. Maybe if I'm lucky one of them will kill Naruto!** Cha, They'll snap his frickin' neck! **"_

_"Perfect, from the looks of things these losers should be a challenge to help me get stronger."_

_"Holy shit, these guys are really scary...I think I'm gonna like this place!"_

While he was thinking, Naruto saw someone looking at him funny. He was a black shirt with several red clouds painted on with black jeans. He had ten swords hitched to his waist, and a large bright green hat in the shape of a squid with an Ame headband on the center.

_"A swordsman. I hope that I'll get to fight this guy." _ the Santoryu user's thoughts were once again by another female voice. Unfortunately for him it was a fangirl voice.

"Sasuke-kun! It's been so long! I'm so happy that you passed all the pre-exams." Ino squealed while she wrapped around Sasuke from behind him. This, as you would think, didn't sit over very well the other head of Sasuke's fanclub.

"Get your filthy ass off of him you pig! He's mine, and don't you forget it bitch!" Sakura screeched at her rival, briefly deafening nearby dogs.

They began arguing while Sasuke just scoffed and walked away (which they didn't really notice) and Naruto to cover his ears, to no avail. Luckily for him two more rookies showed up "Would you two stop being so troublesome, you're both drawing unnecessary attention to us."

Naruto immediately recognized the two of them. They were two of his fellow dead lasts in the academy. They had a small friendship back in the day, supported by the fact that their parents didn't mind Naruto's burden. Chouji's hair was now at a much longer length, which had grown out over the years spent away, and he wore a large red shirt that was plated with silver armor with the symbol for food, and as normal was eating a bag of potato chips. Shikamaru wore his father's old sack coat, which had long since outgrown him and the same ninja pants as before. Apart from that not much had changed aside from his height.

Naruto realized his hood was still up from the confrontation with the Iwa ninja, so they probably didn't recognize him. But Shikamaru noticed the stranger and began asking questions.

"Hey Robin Hood, who are you and why are you with those two losers? In fact your headband isn't from any village I've seen!" Naruto gave a grin to his old classmate but didn't say a thing. He figured as long as no one recognized him he might as well have a little fun with it.

This only lasted a few seconds, when the voice of the final dead last rang out "Well well, looks like the gang's all here. Except the hooded guy seems new. What did you finally decide to replace that loser Naruto!"

As soon as he heard the indirect insult he clicked on of his swords from its sheath, but another more female was heard causing him to tense up "Kiba-san, Iii-I don't think you're being vvery fair. Naruto-kun did manage to beat Mizuki by himself." Hinata stuttered, though it was a lot less than 6 years ago.

Naruto had mixed feelings about this _'Damn it. I'm happy to see her again, but she's the only person that here that i can't fight. And it's likely it's a similar case for her either. So this could be a problem if we end up having to fight. If I reveal my identity, she won't be able to fight me out of hesitation. So it's best I keep myself under wraps for now. As long as those two dumbasses don't call me by my name, I'll be in the clear."_

"Sorry Hinata, but that's just crazy! That guy's so dumb, it was probably just pure accident that he managed to take him down." Kiba threw another indirect a insult at the swordsman, pissing him of even more. This didn't go unnoticed by the dog lover.

"What's the matter batman, you gotta take a shit or something"

After the more direct insult a man in a green hood, which didn't cover up as much as Naruto, still made him unrecognizable and thick black googles "Are you really so dense Kiba. The man you've been insulting is right in front of you."

The reactions from the members of the class who didn't know we're mixed. Chouji began choking on the potato chip he was eating, Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose and whispered "how troublesome" under his breath, while Ino stumbled to the ground with eyes wide open _'Holy shit! That's Naruto! He's as hot as Sasuke now!'_

Hinata instantly began crying small tears of joy, while Kiba retained his arrogant smirk "Heh so the dobe has returned. Why'd you take so long, you get lost on the way here loser?". He laughed mockingly for a few seconds, but a death glare from Hinata quickly shut him up.

_'Sheesh, when the hell did Hinata get so scary!?'_

Akamaru just whined at his masters bluntness. He liked many things about Kiba, but that was not one of them. Luckily he was big enough to punish him by tackling him, which he preceded to do "Damn it Akamaru, I get it keep my mouth shut outside of battle. Just get off your crushing my lungs!".

While this was going on another person with an amused smile walked up. He wore a high collared lavender vest and gloves, and a white undershirt. He had thick circular glasses and long silver hair which he kept tied in a ponytail. Naruto wasn't as amused with his reveal.

"What the hell is your problem revealing me like that, you bastard?! Who the hell even are you anyway?" he said while taking off his hood, seeing as their was point in keeping it on at this point.

The man was slightly offended by this but remained stoic "Why Naruto don't you recognize me?"

"How can I? You're dressed almost exactly like my disguise."

"It's me, Shino." he droned while curled up against the wall, rubbing his finger on the ground, sulking.

Naruto thought for a moment while stroking his chin before realizing "Hmm. Now that makes quite a bit of sense." With the image of child Shino in his mind.

"So you're the rookies for this years exams eh? My name is Kabuto Yakushi, Konoha shinobi and seven time veteran of the chunin exam" the man from earlier approached.

Kiba heard the number of attempts its taken him so far and laughed out loud "This is your seventh time man you must suck at this. HAHAHAHAHAHA!". Akamaru looked like he was about to pounce on him, but Kabuto waved his hand, and behind Kiba a large slash appeared on the wall,and blood trickled from the new cut on his ear.

_'How did he even do that. There was no hand signs for that attack.' _Kiba thought to himself. Some of the smarter ones like Naruto or Shikamaru knew exactly where he got this power

Kabuto easily figured out what all of them were thinking "In case your wondering, yes I've eaten a devil fruit. The Sickle-Sickle fruit to be exact.". Ino, one of those there who had no clue what a devil fruit was asked.

"A devil fruit. What do you mean by that, and how would a fruit give you the ability to do that?" Her spiky haired teammate just looked up at the ceiling "You really don't know Ino? How troublesome, a devil fruit is a fruit from the grand line. Where in the grand line is unknown. Legend has it, they were cursed by the demon of the sea, and if you eat one, you recieve an inhuman ability but the sea will hate you and you'll lose your ability to swim. Not worth it in my opinion, way too troublesome."

The strange man put his hand behind his head and shyly said "Yep that's the gist of it". Just then he noticed a group of Ame ninja staring at them with a great amount of killing intent, one of whom was the one who seemed to have been watching Naruto earlier "Those are rain ninja. They've got pretty nasty tempers, but than again these exams make everyone pretty teacher. But their probably not very happy with us since there are so many leaf ninja, that it dwarfs most of the others here."

His knowledge made Naruto suspicious so he asked "Wait, how are you getting all of this information. You know more than anyone here does or should. So explain."

"Hm, I see. You're as smart as you're bounty is large Roronoa. I've gathered information on everyone who's made it to this point, and the numbers of who's participating from each village. Including all of you." Kabuto answered quickly, not willing to anger the short tempered swordsman.

Though it managed to appease Naruto for the time being, someone else rose towards Kabuto in the crowd "I need you to show me three people from your cards."

"Anyone in particular, Sasuke-kun?"

While Sasuke was slightly put off by the suffix, he continued "Show me Gaara no Sabaku, Rock Lee, and Roronoa Naruto." He silver haired veteran immediately complied and focused chakra into the slips of paper.

"Rock Lee, about 1 year older than any of you. He's done twenty D-class missions and eleven C-class missions. His sensei is Maito Gai, and he has a large amount of skill in the art of taijutsu, but has no talent in the other categories. He was pretty well known last year, but ended up deciding not to participate. His teammates are Tenten Virgo and Neji Hyuuga." When she heard the last name, Hinata gave a worried glance at his picture.

_'Neji Hyuuga. Considering the fact that their in the same clan, it could be hard for her to fight him. That is if they have to.'_

Gaara no Sabaku, he's done 8 C-class and wow, a B-class as a genin. There's not much more info on him really. He's a rookie from Suna so its natural, but I do have this, in every mission he's been on, he hasn't had a single injury."

This shocked even Shikamaru "You're kidding me! He's done a B-class as a genin without getting a scratch on him? This guy has to to have eaten some sort of devil fruit."

"Well I guess we'll find out. Roronoa Naruto, counting his time as a bounty hunter he's done 7 D-Class, 2 C-Class, 18 B-Class, and 1 S-Class. His basic skills are unknown, but he's pretty good with kenjutsu. His leader is Kakashi Hatake, and you should already know who are his teammates are. Care to clarify anything Roronoa?"

"Nothing I have to say to you. Next time ask someone's permission before you reveal their information. You're lucky we're not allowed to draw our weapons while waiting, otherwise that card would be ribbons" Naruto gave a death glare to Kabuto.

"Ok,ok, just following a request, no need to get so defensive. Now let's see, 87 participants from Konoha, 30 from Suna, 21 from Ame, 6 each from Kusa and Taki, and 3 from Oto. The reason the sound has so little is cause it's rather tiny, and enigma that sprung up a couple months ago. All of these guys are powerful, and some are willing to do anything to win so I'd watch your step, and don't get too cocky." His words caught the attention of the aforementioned sound ninja, but before the could respond.

"Please you four-eyed idiot, all these losers are just worms compared to me and my Sasuke-kun! He could and will beat everyone here!" Sakura bragged before pissing herself from the massive killing intent coming towards her and all the other rookies.

"DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS! DUMBASS! NOW EVERYONE HERE HATES US!" Naruto snapped at his bubble brained teammate.

Sakura stood firm however, with an arrogant smirk on her face and replied "It's true dobe, it's not my fault people like you can't handle the truth about how weak they are. They'll just have to get over it."

She would regret her words when a horrible ringing pierced her ears. She tried to cover them but it didn't work, and the ringing continued as she dropped to her knees. A genin with a sound hitai-ate, bandages covering almost all of his face, and a large furry cape approached her.

"Sorry, little howler monkey. But that's what you get for insulting all our villages." the bandaged man said

"Screw you bastard! You're so dumb that you can't realize that you don't stand a chance against my Sasuke-kun, cause he's the greatest ninja ever. You and your sucky village can go to hell. Sasuke-kun will make you pay for doing this to me!" She said despite the fact that Sasuke just stood back, watching the spectacle with a frown on his face.

Kabut came closer and tried to appease him, but he was also brought to his knees by an incredibly powerful blast of wind and over thirty senbon needles to the back "So these are the all powerful shinobi of Konoha. Give me a break, their all completely pathetic! Right Dosun?"

"Indeed Zaku. If this is what we have to deal with for most of the exams, then this will be a piece of cake." Dosun answered his teammates sarcastic question, before haging to use his pipe arm to block an attack from a sheathed sword. Though it was covered the blow was incredibly powerful and likely would have broken a few bones.

Both men looked each other in the eye with death glares that could cut through stone in a battle for supremacy _'Amazing, this guy is just as strong as me, if not stronger.' _ Before it could escalate any further, a blast of smoke came from the front of the room. When the smoke cleared, the man standing there was Ibiki Morino, the top torturer for the Konoha interrogation division.

"Alright you sorry shit-eating maggots. Stop you fighting, disobey me and I won't hesitate to throw you out the 70 story window. Now quit your bellyaching and take your seats judging by your form numbers. The first exam is about to begin!" Ibiki yelled at the brawling genin.

Dosun was smart, and merely gave him a friendly smile "Sorry proctor. We're just a little antsy because its our first time." And walked off to a side proctor to turn in his form.

After about 5 minutes, everyone was seated "Great now that you're all seated your all in your seats we begin the written test." One could here a loud clanking sound in the test room. That would Naruto's forehead hitting the desk.

_'Damn it, I suck a tests. What's next a maze!'_

"Umm Naruto?" He looked in the direction of the voice to see Hinata "You don't need to worry. I know you can do this.". Naruto cracked a small smile at her kind words, and thanked her causing her turn red. She didn't faint this time around though as she'd learned to control that after he had vanished.

"Before we begin the exam, we're going to go over a few rules. Listen carefully because I'm not saying this again! Rule # 1: The written part will stand on a point reduction scale. In this test you start off with a perfect score of 100% and for every question you miss, your score drops 10%. Rule # 2: Teams will be graded together, not as individuals." This next law caused a large uproar amongst the teams.

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

"Rule # 3: The chunin placed around the room will be watching you carefully to watch for any signs of cheating. Any time they catch you, 20% will be deducted from your final score. If you're caught five times then you've hit 0%, and your team will be dismissed. Rule # 4: If one person gets a zero and fails, then the entire team fails the exams. The final question won't be released untill 15 minutes before the test ends. You have a total of one hour. Now get busy! The chunin exams are now officially on!"

The moment Ibiki announced the beginning of the exam, the sounds of pencil hitting paper was audible throughout the room. Naruto was currently looking through the paper for any questions he could answer. Most of these were way to complicated for even a ninja who's been in the village for a while _'Damn nine questions down, and most of these aren't even in the same language I know! Seeing as I can't answer any of these I have 2 choices. Either give up an wait for the tenth question, or cheat and not get caught. As ninja we're supposed to steal information, so this should be a piece of cake. I just need to come up with a plan'_

Many others besides Naruto had already figured out the secret behind obtaining the answers. Most used their kekkei genkai to cheat such as Neji's byukagan, or Shino's bugs. Some used weapons or tools, like Tenten using mirrors. While some used surveillance justu like Gaara's third eye technique.

It wasn't until Kankuro asked to use the restroom when an idea sparked in his head _'Yes, I've got it! As long as I keep my cool and be patient this plan will go amazingly. I just need to wait until mummy boy gets back from the can.'_

Sure enough the puppeteer did after some small banter with Ibiki, and that was the signal for his strategy to go into into action "Proctor, I need to go use the restroom." With a groan of frustration of having to do this again and sent him to one of the restrooms in the hallway.

"Alright kid, take care of your buisness so we can head back and finish the exams." The guard who was assigned to watch him said before he got knocked out by a fist to his chest. The first stage of his plan was completed. Now on to the second part.

* * *

The time limit till the tenth question had just ran out. When he got back from the restroom with the man guarding him in tow, there seemed to be a routine with him answering the questions.

First he turned his attention to the the guard without turning his head, closed his eyes for a moment while the guard wrote some notes down onto his pad. After he was done the guard closed his eyes for a few seconds, and Naruto and the chunin's eyes snapped open at the same time. Naruto then furiously began writing the answer, with the process repeating till all 9 questions were filled.

_'So this is the power of the legenday Cinderface. I don't know what this guy's method is, but it apparently works fairly well. This guy and the one with bags under his eyes ' _Ibiki thought to himself while observing him, and hitting the board.

"Alright you bunch of babies, one hour has passed, and it's time the final question. Out of the 51 genin teams of the 153 participants from the beginning, 6 teams of the 18 participants caught cheating in the first exam. So 45 teams of 135 of you are remaining. Now for the tenth question. This question has special rules that the other nine don't have since this is the hardest one. If you don't feel you're ready to take this question, then you have the option to decline, but if you do you'll be disqualified from the exam. And if you take the question but fail to answer it correctly, not only will you get 0%, you will never be able to take the exams again!"

After the scarred Jonin dropped that bomb, Kiba rose from his seat and yelled out his complaint "What the hell are you talking about? We both know that's bullshit! A lot of people here are veterans who've taken the the exam before."

"Well they must have not had me before, so you're just unlucky. But if you feel the need to do so, by all means, give up and come back next year." Ibiki answered with a taunt.

The room was now filled with and atmosphere of dread and anxiety before the man next to Naruto raised his hand and quit, afterwards apologizing to his team. This caused several other genin to leave before only a few remained.

For each team that left, Naruto kept puzzling. Their was a hidden meaning behind most of the test, so that most likely meant there was one behind this question two. And some of the smarter shinobi there like Gaara or Shikamaru were thinking the same thing. Until they realized that whenever a team quit, Ibiki had a slightly disappointed look on his face.

"Hey Scarface, just so you know if you think you're gonna scare me with that, then your sorely mistaken. I've been through more frightening things on my birthday."

After Naruto's words most got the will to answer the question, and set their hands down onto the desk "I see, so that's everyone who's giving up. Well congratulations, you've correctly answered the final question, and have passed the first stage of the chunin exams!"

"Wait a minute, what do you mean we passed? I thought there was supposed to be a tenth question?" Sakura asked, or rather screamed at the proctor.

Ibiki smiled at the girl's stupidity and explained "There was no final question! It was just a test to see how you acted under pressure, and taking risks. When your a shinobi you have to be prepared to endure any type of physical and mental torture to keep in confidential information". The professional interrogator said while taking off his hitai-te revealing several holes, scars, and burns in the examiner's head.

"Taking risks is one of the main parts of a ninja's lifestyle. Most of you took a large risk by cheating, but for those of you who made it this far I was the only one who caught you. You would be very useful in the wartimes, when stealing information is vi-"

Right in the middle of Ibiki's monologue a large black banner with characters that read

_'The strongest, deadliest, and hottest kunoichi in the leaf'_

popped up out of nowhere, with a violet haired woman in a tan overcoat appeared in a pose "Alright kiddies, it's time for your second exam. I'm Anko Mitarashi, your proctor." She told them with a smile before noticing the deadpan look on Ibiki's face.

_'So this is the woman Iruka-sensei married. Not bad Iruka, not bad' _Naruto thoughts once he saw her.

"I'm early again, aren't I Ibiki?" She asked embarresed.

"Yep. But that's not important right now. As you've seen, there's are a pre-exam before each real exam. Now it's time for you second pre exam, the one that tests if you really know when to take a risk." He knocked on the wall causing it collapse, revealing a 70 story drop. "If you really want to be a chunin, then you'll jump!" Anko made the example and fell after Ibiki finished speaking.

Kiba approached the edge and looked down "No way I can't see the way down. There's a chakra mirror about halfway. We could be jumping straight to our deaths!" Naruto wasn't deterred by this and jumped.

" Did he just... You think you stronger than me just cause you can jump off a stupid building! I can do that to you big jerk." Kiba yelled to his rival before jumping off himself.

Most of the Konoha 12 followed suit along at least half of the other contestants. Except for Sakura and Sasuke "No way I'm jumping of that ledge. Anybody who decided to is just A stupid idiot who doesn't even deserve to walk in my shadow."

"Sakura shut up. The only way I'll make chunin is by jumping, so it should only make that I jump." Sasuke insulted her before doing what he said they would.

"Of course my Sasuke-kun, you're obviously the smartest one here" the fa girl swooned before following the object of her stalking.

Once everyone was out of the room the one watching Naruto approached Ibiki "They really are a promising bunch of kids aren't they. I'm sorry sir, but it's time for me to go". He then disappeared into smoke leaving only his notepad behind which Ibiki promptly picked up.

"Huh, so he had a clone pose a chunin and put a genjutsu on the paper which made it appear he was writing notes, when he was really writing answers. It's a shame such a great ninja ended up being the village pariah. Good luck, Roronoa Naruto.

* * *

At the bottom of the drop, after passing through the mirror they fell into a giant pillow like substance. Afterwards Anko herded the group over to a large clearing before what appeared to be a giant forest surrounded by a gate.

"Alright kiddos I hate exposition so I'll make this quick. This is the forest of death , the area where your second exam will take place. Before the exam after you sign the waivers, you'll receive a numbered scroll and a picture of another participant . This participant will also have your picture. You'll to find this ninja, while surviving the elements of the forest, and fight them for his scroll, and defend your own. After you've won then head to the tower in the center and meet with your team. This will also apply if you survive your battle but lose your scroll. All of your team must have survived to pass, and at least two of you must have a scroll."

"Ok that makes sense. But are we allowed to quit the exam while inside the forest?" Shikamaru asked.

"Not really. In the middle of battle you can't just stop an say "Sorry,I quit". Well I guess you can, but it'd get your ass killed. Now go get your numbers, I'm sick of looking at you people!

Naruto got into line and received his number and the picture of his opponent. It was the squid hatted guy from earlier. And from behind him the man appeared "So Cinderface, you think your the strongest swordsman in the South Blue. Well I'm here to-Oh look a bird. It's so beautiful, flying off with such colorful feathers. It would be wonderful to be a bird. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Umm weren't you talking about defeating me or something?" Naruto questioned with a confused look on his face.

The awed genin realized and angrily yelled "Why you bastard, distracting me like that. Take a good look at me Roronoa. Cause I'm Ikō, the man who will defeat you!" Before walking off in a childlike huff.

"These exams are filled to the brim with dumbasses and psychos isn't it?" Naruto declared to himself before seeing Hinata walking towards him with a jar in her hand.

"Umm Nnnaruto-kun, since your very likely going to be injured during the exam, you can have my healing oil. I know some medic jutsu, so I don't really need it." Naruto smiled at his friend and took the jar and pocketed it. He knew that the fox would normally heal him but during his training he told him to only heal him when his life was at stake so his endurance would raise.

He looked at the blushing Hyuuga and told her "Hinata, you, Shino, and Kiba better make it through this exam. I want to see you fight in the finals. Please, show me you've gotten stronger Hinata-chan." Naruto then ran off towards his gate.

It took Hinata all of her strength not to faint again at the newly added suffix, and she gave the object of her love a small nod, as he ran off into the distance.

Within minutes Naruto had arrived at his gate and watched the timer click down. He still hated most of this village's guts, but the people he cared about were actually making him happy, and making him happy.

The gates opened in front of him, with a buzz signifying the start of the second exam. The swordsman dashed into the fray, thinking the worst of his stay in Konoha was far over. He was wrong.

* * *

**Starting Number of Participants:153**

**Number of Participants Eliminated: 75**

**Passing Number:78**

**(A/N) Holy crap, I thought 5,000 words was a pain. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Mostly cause a lot of my favorite characters were introduced like Anko, Hinata, Lee, Chouji, and my all time favorite Naruto character... Shikamaru! I think the lazy cloudwatcher is almost as badass, if not as badass as Zoro. If Shikamaru was placed as a main character instead of Sakura the anime would be that much more enjoyable. Actually replacing Sakura with any character would make the anime better. On a side note, you want to know who Sai's going after? WELL I'M NOT TELLING YA'! Although that doesn't mean you can't guess! And the new poll will let you do just that. But in the meantime I have some important news. In about 2 weeks I'll be entering my sophomore year of high school, so that means I'll have a lot less time for writing so updates will come out a little later than normal. But the important news that in September my other story Voodoo's Disciple will be coming off of hiatus. So after this chapter I'll be rotating between stories until Voodoo's Disciple is finished. Unfortunately since I've been giving this story much more attention the 10th chapter of Voodoo's Disciple will come out before the fifth chapter of Ninja of Santoryu. I hope this change doesn't affect the reading experience. But enough about my life! It's time for...**

**Skillet's Fanfic Recs:**

**This chapter's rec will be...**

**True Ninja:**

**This might be the best fanfiction out there that portrays Naruto at his darkest, where he isn't evil. After the forbidden scroll incident ends up a little differently. And when I say differently I mean Iruka dies. Naruto sees the risk of being a shinobi before he even is one. And after going through Danzō's training (he's good in this fanfiction.) he becomes pretty cold hearted with only a few people like Ino (NaruIno) being able to get through to him. The bashing in this some of the most brutal I've seen. Especially towards Sakura. Sasuke MIGHT get redeemed but I'm not sure, and Kakashi was never bashed. So if you hate Sakura as much as I do, then this is the story for you.**

**Skillet signing off. And for those of you still in school like me. Stay strong. We can make it to October...**

**. . .**


	5. Snake in the Grass: Santoryu vs Jutoryu

**Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If i did then... Crap I can't think of anything!**

**Kurama: Just say some random bullshit.**

**Skillet: Alright. Some random bullshit!**

**Kurama: I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT, YOU BIG DUMBASS!**

**Skillet: You don't have to be mean about it... JUST START THE FRICKIN' CHAPTER ALREADY!**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 4: Snake in the Grass: Santoryu vs. Jutoryu**

The first couple of days weren't very hard for most of the teams. While some of the stronger ones like Naruto or Gaara decided to strike it out on their own. Or they were just annoyed by their teams. Others though decided to stick with their teams by meeting in the forest like Team 8 or InoShikaCho.

It wasn't until the third day were things got a little weird for the latter "I assume we have all of our numbers from our fallen opponents. Am I correct in my assumption, Kiba? Hinata?"

"Well I don't know about you losers, but me and Akamaru beat that loser we were assigned to in a flash." Kiba bragged arrogantly.

"I got mine as well Shino-kun. We should probably be heading towards the tower then"

Just as Hinata suggested the team got up and began heading in the direction of the tower. That is until the branch Kiba was on suddenly got cut off, causing the Inuzuka heir to face plant on to the ground below.

He was not amused "Alright who's the wise guy who thinks that punking with the greatest rookie in all of Konoha is a good idea" he yelled out into the forest while his teammates gathered around him.

"Hey, next time look where your going dog breath" Naruto said while cutting several branches out of his way.

"I was, you asshole! You cut the branch I was standing on before I had a chance to move. If anything you should watch where your cutting with those katana!" Kiba yelled at his old bullying victim.

Naruto grinded his teeth together from anger and furiously explained "How the hell else am I gonna find my way to the tower when I can't seem to see a hint of of it?!"

"Umm Naruto-kun the tower is right over there in the center." Hinata told the hooded man.

Naruto looked in the buildings direction with a look of frustrated shock on his face "Damn it! Out of all the habits I got from Zoro-oniisan why did his sense of direction have to be one of them! Hmm". He paused when he heard a strange sound nearby along with several pounds of killing intent.

He approached a hiding spot between bushes, with team 8 following suit, and saw a team of rain ninja versus the red-haired Sand shinobi from earlier. The landscape had been relatively untouched, suggesting that the battle had just begun.

"You had horrible luck getting stuck with me, you browless freak! I was in the top 3 in the Ame academy, meaning I'm one of the strongest ninja here. Just give your number now, and maybe I'll let you leave with your life!" the scarred one said haughtily.

Still, Gaara kept his soulless expression and robotically droned "You will die here today. All of you. Mother wants your blood.". At the rather insane statement Shigure gave an irritated scowl, and drew the tan umbrellas from his back and threw them up into the air.

**"Ninja Art: Senbon Rainstorm"**

Within seconds the weaponized needles blanketed the clearing, from the ground to the trees stopping right the point of the bush, grazing Naruto's cheek. The arrogant ninja gave a triumphant smirk which fell after seeing a shadow in the rummage. When the dust cleared Gaara stood with the same emotionless gaze as before, completely unfazed by the attack, as a shell of sand covered him from the needles.

"_How the hell did he do that! The needles were too fast for him to pull of any hand signs! Did he eat one of those devil fruits you guys were talking about before the first exam?" _Kiba whispered so as not to get caught and attacked.

Shino quickly answered to anyone who didn't know "_ I'm afraid not Kiba. There was no sand on the ground and the Sand-Sand Fruit was already eaten by former Shichibukai, Sir Crocodile."_

"Is that all you can do? If so, then it's time for Mother to receive your blood." Gaara responded to the attack. Shigure barely had any time to think before sand enveloped his entire body.

**"Sand Casket"**

Gaara quietly said while ceasing the upper movement of his left hand, and closed it. Though it didn't seem like anything important, the moment the tips of his fingers touched his palm, the barrier of sand imploded in on itself, crushing and killing Shigure.

**"Sand Funeral"**

At the horrifying sight, everyone watching the one sided battle felt their heart stop for a minute. Even some of the stronger willed ones like Naruto or Shino winced at the thick killing intent coming from the raccoon eyed genin. It was like he didn't even have a soul.

"Take his number, take all of our numbers! We quit, we're not strong enough to go up against monsters like you!" The one with the black eye markings said.

Unfortunately for them Gaara wasn't the most merciful person "No it's not enough. It's still not enough! Mother needs more blood!". The deadly sand flew towards them as they were frozen in fear. But at the last possible moment, a blade being a long furry lime green tentacle shot out, causing the sand to fly out before it could hit the terrified genin.

And the person on the other end of the sword was Ikō with 7 other swords entangled by the tentacles of his hat, and two in his hand "Really you guys. I knew you guys were weak, but I didn't know you were cowards. You don't deserve to be apart of the Akatsuki. Just go to the tower and wait for the five days to be up."

They were insulted by this, but by this point the courage to argue and just ran in the direction they were told "You helped my prey get away. You will pay for this. Mother wants your blood!". Ikō just gave an arrogant smirk before twisting his swords into a saw blade position with the two hand held swords in front being spun in different directions.

**"Jutoryu: Slicing Saw Blades"**

Once again the sand exploded upon impact "Nice try #1 but I know all your tricks. You can't win against me and my swords." Gaara's face twisted into a confused scowl, before another more relaxed voice rang out.

"Gaara, forget that loser. You already got your number so there's no need for more bloodshed today. Just follow me to the tower. Temari is already waiting for us there"

Though Gaara wanted to kill this swordsman right then and there, he knew that there would be much stronger opponents at the tower and followed his brother into the forest. Ikō though wasn't very willing to let his target get away.

"I don't think so #1! If making chunin will qualify me for the Akatsuki, then capturing a jinchuriki will make me a shoo-in." Before his swords could make a failed attempt at defeating Gaara, all of his swords were blocked by three others.

Naruto was standing in front of him "You guys get to the tower. This guy's got the number I need, so I need to stay here and fight!"

"Alright, we'll see you there. Don't you dare lose to this guy Naruto, cause I wanna be the one who takes you down!" Kiba yelled out to his rival before heading out to the tower with his teammates, one of which had a slightly worried look on her face.

_'Be careful, Naruto-kun'_

* * *

Sasuke was not happy. In fact he was pissed. He had been out for three days looking for the same girly looking man named Shiore. He felt that if anything Shiore should have found him on the first day, given him his number, and bowed before him.

_'Damn it. Why is it so hard for me to find one guy. I'm an Uchiha!'_

"There you are! It took a long while but I finally found you Sssssasuke-kun." A chilling voice from behind hissed. He turned around to see the target of his search ready for battle.

Turning on his sharingan Sasuke boasted "You should just give me your number now. There's no use defying me, I am an Uchiha after all ."

Shiore was smart however and knew which button to push his opponent "You're 18-years old and yet you still have only ONE tomoe in your eyes?! Pathetic, I heard your brother had all three when he was three years younger than you. Maybe your just, I don't know, inferior to him. Just a thought!"

This obviously pissed of the Uchiha to the point where he charged with a kunai, which he proceeded to heat with the Flaming Hammer Jutsu.

**"Fire Style: Welder's Knife"**

The grass-nin anticipated this and leaned back, causing Sasuke's attack to miss completly. When he was close enough Shiore extended his tongue around his opponents torso and swung him into the trunk of the tree they were on.

"Like my power Sasuke-kun? It doesn't matter if you can predict my movements if your to brash to avoid them." Shiore taunted.

With another scowl, Sasuke charged again "You know nothing compared to me, you piece of trash!"

**"Fire Style: Flaming Hammer"**

The Kusa genin jumped down to a nearby lake with a smirk. When Sasuke saw this, he repositioned himself to jump after him. Both focused chakra into their feet, so they could stand on the surface of the water without falling in.

"Stop running from me and face your fate you coward. Just accept that I'll always be better than you!" Sasuke said before charging at Shiore with several pounds of killing intent around him. This didn't seem to bother him to much, as he merely smirked and performed his own attack

**"Water Style: Giant Vortex"**

Once the water had begun spinning the snake-like man jumped from the water to avoid being caught. Sasuke however didn't see the whirlpool in time and was caught "Hm, it appears that Fū hasn't yet taught him the relationships between chakra natures. If he had, then Sasuke-kun would have avoided the water at any costs. Maybe this will be easier than I thought."

* * *

Naruto and Ikō stood in the clearing with swords drawn. The air of killing intent between the two swordsmen was incredibly heavy, as if a battle to the death was about to take place.

The blond haired genin stood firm in his battle stance, and asked between the sword in his teeth "Alright, Squidhead. Before I kick your ass I have a few questions to ask you. Like what the hell is this Akatsuki you want to join so badly?"

"Well to answer your question to what exactly the Akatsuki is, it's organization dedicated to the cause of- HOLY SHIT! IS THAT A GIANT SNAKE? THAT THING COULD SWALLOW BOTH OF US WHOLE AT THE SAME TIME!...Wait a minute- As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, the Akatsuki is an organization dedicated to temporary peace. How would we accomplish such a goal? WELL I'M NOT TELLING YOU! Fine, you've convinced me, I'll tell you, but only because you asked so nicely!"

_'Is this guy really a threat to me?' _Naruto thought with an irritated look on his face.

"Our goal is to create a super chakra weapon from the chakra of the nine great Biju. Once all have been collected the weapon will be complete, and we will give two weapons to 2 hostile nations, which will in turn destroy each other. After war has been abolished we shall get rid of crime, by executing criminals with the weapon. But in order to retrieve the biju, we have to capture all of the jinchuriki that hold them. Unfortunatley the process kills them, but it's for a worthy cause don't you think? And since I'm sure you're going to ask me I ate the Nerve-Nerve Fruit. That means that any part of my body, including my clothes can be controlled to the very last cell, as long it's in contact with my skin!"

Naruto thought about a familiar foe from Enies Lobby and knew he'd have to watch his movements to avoid being hit. But when he was done planning, five sword holding tentacles burst from the ground. Though he managed to block three of the swords with his own, two managed to cut into his skin before retracting back into the ground.

**"Gotoryu: Scorpion Stringer"**

Before Naruto could ponder what had just happened, Ikō explained it himself "Nice thinking, you were so focused on my swords in front that you forgot that the swords on the back of my hat could easily be moved. Real smart Cinderface, your grades in the academy couldn't have been more wrong!". Unfortunately for him, by the time he was finished mocking him, Naruto had vanished into thin air.

"Don't ignore me you filthy bastard!" The Ame nin angrily yelled, before hearing a noise from the ground. Moments later, Naruto popped out out of the ground with a confident look. With all three swords drawn he began attempting to strike down his opponent. Though each time he just barely blocked them , Ikō had a freaked out look on his face.

_'How the hell did he do that! I didn't see him make any handsigns, does he have a Devil Fruit power too?' _He wondered to himself, before noticing the hole left by his most recent attack had gotten much bigger _'He used the hole I made from the Scorpion Stinger. That clever bastard!'_

In an attack, Ikō put the eight sword he held in his tentacles into a circular position with the blades facing outward.

**"Hattoryu: Squid Pot Stance"**

Naruto was prepared for the attack and blocked the muti-sworded stab, but afterwards Ikō opened up his swords sending Naruto in where they readied their respective attacks.

**"Santoryu:"**

**"Nitoryu:"**

**"One Gorilla"**

**"Trapping Snare"**

In a flash Naruto was behind his opponent who stood still for a moment before turning around to reveal three large cuts on his chest "That hurt, you asshole!"

"It's a fight you idiot the point is to hurt each other!" Naruto explained to his enemy, visibly annoyed.

"Of course you would say that to escape my power, but it won't work! AHHHH THE SNAKE'S BACK! No wait, it was just a worm, my mistake...HOW DARE YOU DISTRACT ME! THAT'S IT, #9 YOU WERE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE ME! SO NOW YOU SHALL FACE THE WRATH OF MY ULTIMATE JUTORYU ATTACK!"

**"JUTORYU: MINCING GAUNTLET!"**

Naruto barely had any time to think before all 8 swords went flying out at him. Before he could prepare for the onslaught four of the blades sliced, stabbed, and cut him.

He managed to block the next 4, but they continued to twist around him at a great speed meaning Naruto was only able to block them right before they hit. Despite this, besides the earlier cuts he was able to avoid any further injury. That is until Ikō revealed another ability his Devil Fruit gave him.

His arms stretched out in a confusing sight, momentarily disorienting Naruto. The rain shinobi knew well that this would happen and taking advantage of the moment of weakness, he speared his opponent.

The swordsman winced from the brief moment of pain, which gave the waving swords an opening to continue their assault on him. Ikō pulled back his swords in a moment of confidence while Naruto kept coughing up blood and gloated "Now you see the full potential of the Nerve-Nerve Fruit. I can fire my arms like a harpoon, make my clothes as hard as steel, and destroy illnesses from the inside. My only limit is that I can't heal external injuries! AH WHY DID I TELL YOU THAT! Oh what does it matter, with injuries of your size, I'm surprised your still alive. Face it #9 you've been beaten."

Though had lost several ounces of blood Naruto managed to gather enough strength to look at his opponent with an intense leer _'So this guy can stretch like Luffy except he doesn't need momentum to attack. I've lost to much blood, if I'm hit even one more time by this moron then it's all over. There's to much happening around me. The crawling of the snakes, the blowing of the wind, this idiots rambling. I need to clear my head and focus only on his swords. Focus solely on their rhythm.'_

"What's the matter Cinderface, giving up? I thought you were stronger than that. Oh well it's not like it really matters, your still getting the Kyuubi removed by me!" Ikō said preparing bombard Naruto once again.

"It won't do shit taking the Kyuubi out of me. Only his soul is sealed inside of me, I put his chakra somewhere else years ago." Naruto answered remaining stoic while moving his swords into a bull like position.

Even though he was confused by this fact at first he soon realized just where he sealed the chakra, judging by the energy coming from the object "Wwwait, yoouu sealed all of thhe Kyuubi's chakra into that red tinted sword?… HOLY SHIT, THAT'S REALLY COOL!"

"STOP GUSHING OVER IT AND GET SERIOUS. WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT YA KNOW!"

Ikō instantly snapped back to attention and gave Naruto a look that could be seen in a lion hunting its prey "Your right, if that's really the case I'll just have to take that sword of yours, along with your carcass!"

****"Jutoryu: Mincing Gauntlet"****

_'Clear you mind. Focus only on the swords of your enemy' _He thought to himself before charging at the enemy with the same bull like positon as before.

The sound of the steel of the swords hitting each other were nonexistent during this round of attacks as Naruto was careful not to hit the enemy swords, even with with his eyes shut. When Ikō saw this he merely gave an arrogant grin and once again stretched his arms out.

But this time Naruto opened his eyes and jumped onto his arms. Once he began his sprint down the limb Ikō grew a shocked an terrified look on his face, and quickly began shrinking his arms down to normal size.

After he felt that he was almost out of space, he leapt off of his flesh and positioned his attack to where it would hit. The Akatsuki recruit looked up at the incoming blow with the sun glowing behind the hooded man "No! I won't lose like this! Not after I'm so close to my goal!"

**"Santoryu: Bull Horns"**

His desperate words were cut short as Naruto made contact and ran behind him until his intertia ran out. Naruto looked behind him to see that Ikō was on his knees having lost the same amount of blood as him, but as opposed to him tears could be seen falling from his eyes, before he got up and faced his rival.

"What is with you? You're more stubborn than me and that's saying something!" Naruto asked the bleeding and near death Ikō.

"I have to get into the Akatsuki, otherwise I'll never be able to punish him. The man who killed my parents, Gilles the Ripper!"

Naruto almost instantly recognized that name "Gilles, oh yeah. That psycho who ripped people apart with his bare hands just for the fun of it. I heard he has caught by Admiral Kizaru about 10 years ago and sentenced to the Inferno Hell level of Impel Down with 75 consecutive life sentences."

"That's right I looked for him since I was three and even gave my ability to swim so I could kill him. But then he was captured without a death penalty! But once Lord Pein had accomplished eliminating war, he'll empty out all the prisons and kill every inmate! Including him." Ikō explained his motives for joining Ame before giving Naruto another glare. But there was something different about this glare, this one seemed respectful.

"I know what I'm doing is crazy, but I'm not strong enough to live knowing he's still alive out there. Both of us barely have enough blood to stay alive for much longer, so please for both of our honor let me finish this battle!"

Naruto gave him his own respectful smirk from his bleeding mouth and responded to his request "Alright, I have to admit that while you are batshit insane, you are an honorable swordsman. I will complete this match but keep in mind that the loser will die from from loss of blood."

Ikō gave an understanding and readied himself for the final stand with the same stance he used to block Gaara's previous attack, while Naruto put the swords in his hands in a parallel position over the one in his mouth. After a few more seconds of patiently waiting Naruto charged and Ikō began spinning his swords.

**"Jutoryu: Slicing Saw Blades"**

**"Santoryu: Tiger Hunt"**

Once their swords had meet for a brief moment of time, the opposing swordsman had their backs facing each other, with the victor decided. Only a few moments passed before all ten of Ikō's swords shattered, and his bleeding body fell to the ground.

"Well, I guess this is it, at least know I fell to a worthy opponent. Just take this and get to that tower you jerk.". With what little life he had left he took his scroll out out of his pocket and held it up for Naruto to take "And by the way, since you killed me it's very likely that Lord Pein's going to send a pair of major members after you. I don't want to see your ugly face for a while, so you better not get your self killed."

And thus with his final words complete, Ikō let his body relax as his eyes rolled back into his head, and his heart slowed to a stop. The ex-bounty hunter looked over the the corpse of his foe and closed his eyes for one last time. He then sheathed Kurama and began digging a hole with his other two swords.

The digging and burial process took about 30 minutes. Like any swordsman would want he buried him with the broken remains of his swords. After chopping down a few trees in order to form the grave marker, Naruto headed out in the direction of the tower trying as hard as he could to not get lost this time.

* * *

On the shore of a lake inside the forest, the waves wash up the soaked barely conscious body of Sasuke Uchiha still incredibly disoriented from Shiore's previous attack _'You've got to be kidding me, why is this guy so hard for me to fight? I'm an Uchiha, I was the rookie of the year in my graduating class! Not some clanless dobe like Naruto. This trash should kneel before me like the shitstain he is!'_

The arrogant teenager was broken from his ranting thoughts when the target of his anger walked up to him "So this is the power of the almighty Uchiha! Pathetic, a criminal and a weakling. It's sad that the Uchiha have such dobes for their heirs."

"I'm not a dobe, I was always better than Itachi! I am the greatest shinobi in history!" Sasuke screamed in a tantrum like manner while drawning several explosive kunai and jumping back while performing several hand signs.

**"Lightning Cannon"**

As the name suggested several thousand volts of electricity went flying from the Uchiha's mouth. He stood on the water with a confident look, which turned to rage filled shock when he saw someone emerge from the ashes.

It was the same man as before, but with a different an grotesque detail. Almost a quarter of his face had been melted off. Instead of muscle or bone however, under was a sickly white layer of skin, with yellow eyes and purple markings "Impresssssssive Sssssasuke-kun. But I'm afraid our buissssnessssssss here isssss done. I am one of the three ssssanin Orochimaru, though recently I've taken up a job offer offer. The Santatsu Foundation which you will soon come to seeking power."

Before Sasuke had time to react to the odd scene the sannin's neck stretched out getting him close to bite the neck of the unfortunate young man, knocking him unconcious. The leftover wound formed a seal in the shape of three tomoe circling each other.

"Hm, well that wasssss eassssier than expected. I guesssssss Fū really is weaker than Kakasssssshhhhi. Better go tell that old fart I completed my assssssignment." he pondered to himself before heading out in to the forest leaving no evidence he'd been there behind.

That is, besides a sealed box adressed to Sasuke…

* * *

**Starting Number of Participants: 78**

**Number of Participants Eliminated: 57**

**Passing Number: 21**

**(A/N): So what was in the box? Oh who the hell am I kidding, it's a Devil Fruit.**

**(Starts getting anything the readers can find thrown at him.)**

**LET ME EXPLAIN! I'm not going to give the Uchiha brat every power up from the chidori to the RINNEGAN, ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME KISHIMOTO, YOU GAVE SASUKE THE-Sorry about that. But even though it's clear Danzō will be the Big Bad, Sasuke will still be a major villain, and thus needs to pose a threat. Speculation for his Devil Fruit will be allowed only through reviewing, as I won't take down the poll until the character dies. Now onto the topic of this chapter being so much shorter than the last one. The reason is that while last chapter was plot driven, this chapter was battle driven. And since I've only written a few fight scenes thus far it'll be hard for me to make the chapters last too long. However the more experience I get, the longer the fight scenes get. So by the end of the halfway point the battle chapters should be as long as the plot chapters. But enough about story issues! It's time for...**

**Skillet Fanfic Recs:**

**This chapter's rec will be…**

**To Fix a Broken Sun:**

**Unlike the other fanfics I've reccomended, this one takes a much darker tone and is actually complete. After Naruto causes a minor accident, Skura goes way too far with her treatment of him, which nearly drives him to do the unthinkable. Now as Naruto heals from his physical and mental scars, Sakura has to deal with the regret of seeing him move on. This had pretty perfect writing with a few bumps here and there and the characters are well developed for the most part. That, and Sakura pays for her stupid mistakes :D.**

**See you next time!**

**. . .**


	6. The Madness of Sasuke Uchiha

**Disclaimer:….**

**Cedric: Hey, where the hell is Skillet, he's supposed to be doing the disclaimer,**

**Ikō: He's in a comatose state. ****Gee, I wonder why, I say sarcastically!**

**Cedric: Oh there's no way your pinning this on me Squid Boy. I may be a homicidal maniac who sacrifices to Loa demons but what did this was much worse than I could ever be. A cartoon so horrible that it makes man, women and children piss themselves with fear… DRAWN TOGETHER!**

**Ikō: That's it, I thought you were talking about Allen Gregory or something. Don't some people like that show?**

**Cedric: You've never seen an episode or even clips of the show have you?**

**Ikō: No but I'm sure that if it's as bad you say it is then both of us will have to dive into it to find a cure for Skillet's coma together.**

***He turns around but Cedric isn't their anymore. Instead there's a note that reads***

_Hell no! __I'll be playing Five Nights at Freddy's, while you can go through that torture._

**Ikō: Get your ass back here you coward! What about the chapter it's supposed to go up today! Hey what's this?**

***Presses Button***

**Skillet Projection: Hello, whoever's listening to this. If you're watching this then I've fallen into a comatose state from something unimaginably horrible Right before the release of a chapter. In that case what you have to do is go into my document manager upload the chapter to the story. I'll put in the authors note after a cure is discovered. Whoever dives into the piece of crap that put me into this situation to find the cure, good luck and stay strong. And you'll get a 70% raise. Now hurry! The Fanfiction Bureau is pissed at me for my slow updates, so it's likely they'll sentence me to something horrible to wa- Aww Cra…**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 5: The Madness of Sasuke Uchiha**

The sun had been shining brightly on the dawn of the fifth and final day in the Forest of Death. Both Naruto and Sasuke had already arrived at the tower the previous morning. The Uchiha had been in differentiating moods between anxiously excited to incredibly pissed off. Naruto didn't really seem to mind or care though as he spent most of the day spent tending to the scratches his swords had received during his previous battle.

Sakura though had never returned from her battle in the Forest of Death. Though neither of them really cared for their annoying teammate on a personal level they still wanted her to have made it out alive, Naruto so he could get out of Konoha again and resume his journey, and Sasuke so he could get stronger.

Both fortunately and unfortunately for the same time she had arrived at the door in a really beat up shape with several cuts covering her body "Sasuke-kun, I need you to kill that sand bitch who denied my superiority over her. Because of her we failed the exams!"

"Actually Dumbass we did pass. Both me and Uchiha-teme got our scrolls" Naruto told her as he held up his bloody scroll to the shock of both of them.

"Please dobe, their's no way a loser like you could've won a fight. You probably just stole a scroll from a corpse you found like a coward or something. That must be why it has all that blood on it" Sasuke tried to discredit the swordsman while he and hits stalker smirked at what they thought was reality before Naruto made an obvious argument.

"Hn, and you call me stupid. It would make no sense to grab a numbered scroll from a corpse because you have to have gotten a certain number, a number that only your opponent would have. To take one off a body that had fallen in battle would be entirely pointless"

Sasuke retained his arrogant smirk and responses to the thesis "We'll see about once we scan our numbers loser". He walked up to the scanner and put his scroll against it until it turned green.

Naruto then proceeded to walk up to the scanner with his scroll in tow ignoring the insults and jeers of his teammates such as "I don't know why your even trying to pretend like your telling the truth Naruto-Baka. You could never match up to what my Sasuke-kun could do!" from Sakura and placed his scroll on the scanner.

One could the wrinkling of Naruto's smirk and the heats pounding of the two idiots when the scanner turned green.

_'And another obstacle down, only one more test to go. If their as strong as Ikō or the guy in the bandages then this should be fun.'_

_'How did he get that number all on his own, when that gay-ass snake had to give his to me after he beat me. I know! It has to be that damn red-tinted sword of his. Once I get ahold of it he'll be left with nothing again as he should be and I'll have the power I rightfully deserve as an Uchiha!"_

_'How does did Naruto get his number, he supposed to be just a dobe! If this keeps up Sasuke-kun won't become a chunin. This is good, something I've wanted for years to happen will finally come true. Naruto has to die in the final exam. Then Sasuke-kun will fall in love with me!'_

After the green color on the scanner faded away the large doors which signified entrance to the tower opened up. Naruto instantly began rushing, so as not to get lost in some ridiculous way, being followed by a sword-eyeing Sasuke and Sakura releasing all the killing intent she had in her body at him. Which was so little that it wouldn't scare a baby prairie vole.

* * *

The room they entered was a small stadium with a pit surrounding it that had no bottom to be seen and was shaped like a dome. Everything in the room appeared to made of the same stone used in the poneglyphs except for something in the middle of the room. A bloody stake with chains screwed on. It appeared it's prisoner had been moved to a different room.

_'So this is the place where those civilian council bastards stuck me all those times before.Kûmèn Temple, the torture monestary of Konoha. One half is true criminals that are sent to Ibiki and Anko, but then their's the dark side of the tower, where those the council want to be shut up are sent. Almost nobody knows what goes on in this part but the saddest and most disturbing part is if the civilians did, I really don't think they'd care. This must be the dark side of the temple, I can tell because of that pole.'_

From the door on the right side of the room a familiar man came out as it opened "Well, you guys finally showed up? I was beginning to wonder if you guys died in the Forest."

"Not a chance, well I don't know about these two idiots here actually. So your are proctor for the final pre-exam Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked to his old teacher and friend.

"Well it depends on the room. But in a sense, I could guess you could say I am. But now lets get down to the rules of this pre-exam because since this is the last and hardest of them. You will each have a match against a prisoner. Only 2 out of 3 of you have to win your matches, but these aren't just ordinary prisoners you'll be facing. What makes it so hard is that you'll be facing prisoners from the depths of hell itself. The Undersea Prison, Impel Down!"

While Sakura seemed terrified at fighting someone who had been banished, she calmed herself by telling herself " It's ok Sakura, you should have no trouble fighting this dirt that the only people they'd be able to beat are Ino-pig and Naruto-baka. If anything they'll bow before your beauty and superiority!"

The males of the team however seemed very excited at this idea as Naruto clicked Kurama from its sheath with a grin he'd inherited from his brother figure, while Sasuke thought _'Great this would be an amazing time to test out my new Devil Fruit power!"_

A loud noise which sounded as if it was metals grinding against each other. A draw bridge was opening up to the opposite side of the arena while a bridge on their end slide to the square. When the drawbridge finally reached it's end three hooded figures stepped out from the corridor each differentiating height.

"Alright, the Hokage has already decided all of your opponents with a few "helpful" suggestions from "our wise and great" civilian council." Iruka read off of a paper, though it was clear he was grinding his teeth through it the entire time.

"Sakura your up first" the weak genin winced at being chosen to go first before repeating her previous words to herself all over again. She stepped into the arena confident that it would really happen, and this was fed after the one of smallest stature stepped forward.

With an arrogant smirk of her own she mocked her opponent emptily "You should just give up now. There's no way possible you could ever stand up to the Top Kunoichi of her class, especially if one with such beauty and talent as me."

The hooded man just scoffed and revealed himself to be someone Iruka hoped to never see again and someone who had long since been erased from Naruto's mind… Mizuki.

"Still an arrogant bitch as always Sakura. I wish I could fight the one here that I respect, the one who I want to kill more than anyone else I've ever met." Mizuki spoke in a raspy voice for the first time in years, while pointing at Naruto. However he had fallen asleep with a bubble coming from his nose.

"Pay attention to me bastard! Oh well, if I can't kill you at least I'll have the satisfaction of killing one of you teammates instead." He responded to the target of his hatred's laxness while a strange aura surrounded him.

Sakura's misplaced arrogance faded away into horrified shock at the transformation before her. Mizuki had turned into some sort of hybrid between a man and a tiger "Like my little trick I picked up in prison bitch? I'm lucky that idiot chef mixed up foods, otherwise I wouldn't have this, the power of the Cat-Cat Fruit: Tiger Model! Now time to die by my claws." He boasted his new power before attempting to strike a killing blew. However right before he could do us all a favor…

"I withdraw, you're to big of an idiot to realize I'm superior, just like Naruto-baka or the sand bitch!" She cried cowardly before running across the bridge. Once she was across the bridge she looked over to Sasuke as if expecting a compliment. However all she got was a rightfully deserved cold glare.

After what could barely be called a match, Mizuki retreated back into his human form and allowed his seastone cuffs to be re-administered before retreating back into the hallway way mumbling "I can't believe I left Wild Beast Hell for this. At least I can train there…"

Sasuke stepped across the stone bridge while the one the appeared to be the tallest came forward "So your the last member of the famed Uchiha Clan. I was hoping I'd get to fight one of the stronger one's. Oh well at least i'll have a little fun before I go back to getting cut all the time."

The man took off his hood to reveal teal flat top hair that was even taller than his head. He had a very defined and muscular face that had no eyebrows and a black goatee, and carried a long silver staff with a rounded end.

_'This guys a compete idiot, using a weapon thats a natural conductor of heat, in a fight a fight against the heir to a clan fire jutsu specialists. I won't even need my powers in this fight'_

The moment Iruka gave the signal to go both opponents charged at each other with a fury like almost no other the prisoner spinning his staff in a sonic speed while Sasuke threw several red hot shuriken while charging his own attack. The staff wielder deflected all of the shuriken and got into a blocking stance before Sasuke's fist connected.

**"Fire Style: Flaming Hammer"**

"AAAHHH, THE HEAT IS BURNING MY SKIN! MAKE IT STOP, OH IT HURTS! Just kidding." He revealed with a devilish sneer before sweeping away Sasuke's arm and striking him back in retaliation.

**"Conduction ****Surge"**

The bottled up heat in the staff released itself in a searing pulse the moment it made it made contact with Sasuke's skin, both burning him and knocking him back. The Uchiha was brought to his knees, coughing up several ounces of blood, while trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"Like my conduction release brat? Whether it be electricity or heat I can store it in a natural conductor without getting a scratch on me by focusing my chakra into a shinobi rod. That's how I pulled off all my robberies before my capture by Vice Admiral Smoker. That's how they call me Searing Staff Sahnko. Part of me actually wished I got to fight Sleeping Hoody over there. At least he'd put up a real fight! Face it, you may talk big but your just a whiny little bitch."

After the scathing rant from Sahnko, to say Sasuke was pissed off beyond all belief would be an understatement "How dare you say such things to me. I'm an avenger! An Uchiha! The heir to the strongest clan this pathetic little village has ever known. Prepare to see the error of your ways you piece of shit!"

**"Fire Style: Super Fireball Jutsu"**

Sasuke clearly not learning his lesson on the thief's fighting style launched the giant ball of fire at Sahnko, only for it to be absorbed seconds later. The silver staff became a burning crimson color "You just made the biggest mistake of your life Uchiha!".With that Sahnko rushed him with a frenzy of burning strikes that were invisible to a normal person giving little time to dodge or plan his next move.

**"Hellish Cyclone"**

Once all the heat had been released Sahnko jumped back into a defensive position. The bruises and burns on Sasuke's body were so plentiful that he could barely stand or see straight _'Damn it, none of my fire jutsu are working on this guy. That last attack took off a lot of my chakra. Looks like I have no choice but to use that power.'_

He focused some of his energy into his hands which hands which seemed to shine a little bit aftewards and began charging once again. The imprisoned smirked at this and taunted "So your going to can it with the fire jutsu and attack me head on. That won't work either, my staff is as strong as steel and as light as cloth. This ends here Uchiha!"

**"Silver Bullet"**

Sahnko flexed his muscles and pushed his staff in a straight strike which went right through the Uchiha brat. But to his surprise he kept moving showing no signs of pain from being impaled by the staff's flat edge "Shit, he's a Logia user!"

**"Superiority Hammer"**

After the arrogant name was said, the now metal hands of Sasuke made hard impact onto the convicts face sending him unconscious and into ponegrite ground. Sasuke wasn't there as in a move of disgusting sadism he whispered "You should have surrendered to me the moment Iruka called the match. Now your going to see why you shouldn't deny the Uchiha clans power over everyone else in this world" before tossing the unconscious thief down the pit surrounding the ring to his death.

Sakura began cheering for and complementing her psychotic crush despite the horrific display which was just shown. But then she realized Naruto had slept through the entire match "How dare you sleep through my precious Sasuke-kun's match you worthless orphan!". She threw her fist at the sleeping swordsman only for him to catch it and give her a punch of his own.

"Naruto your next. Wake up, it's time for your match against…oh no…" The bubble from Naruto's nose popped as he awoke and walked across the drawbridge, giving his swords to Iruka as the prisoner didn't seem to be much of a threat in his eyes. The prisoner took off his hood to reveal bushy brown hair and cold soulless blue eyes, with very large muscles.

"Please Naruto just surrender, fighting this guy isn't worth it. I don't now if you know who this is but this man is a complete and total monster who ripped people apart with his bare hands simply for the fun of it before his capture by Admiral Kizaru 8 years ago. The serial killer Gilles Dahmer, otherwise known as Gilles the Ripper!" Iruka warned his favorite student out of fear and insecurity.

What he didn't know is that Naruto recently came across someone who's life was ruined by this murderer, someone who was a very honorable swordsman. The killing intent emitting of Naruto was enormous, enough to kill a normal human being within 2 feet. However Gilles was definitely not a normal human and demonstrated this by sending out his own killing intent and shattering one of the few rocks in the room that wasn't made of ponegrite with a simple grip.

_'Don't feel bad that you're going to die here dobe. You won't worthy enough to exist in this world anyways'_

_'Yes Naruto's going die a horribly painful death and I get to watch! Then me and my Sasuke-kun can be together forever!"_

_'This bastard…'_

"Finally I'll be able to hear the screams of my victims, and feel the wonderful sensation of pints of blood and chunks of flesh on my hands once again!" Gilles droned and shaked anxiously before Naruto began walking towards the evil and twisted man.

**"Mutoryu: Thieving Apparition"**

Within seconds Naruto was behind Gilles with small gusts of wind blanketing the ring. While there appeared to be no changes to the fight besides Naruto's change of position, Gilles looked down to see that there was a hole in the place that his heart would be "Gilles Dahmer, you've done horrible things in your life. Deformed people completely, ripped family's apart at the seams, and drove someone with great potential down the dark part of revenge. But what's really unforgivable is that you did all of this for sick pleasure without remorse. So now you get to see through your victims eyes."

Naruto turned around with his iris' dyed a blood red shade in a leer which looked like a wolf stalking it's prey in a way like Naruto had completely disappeared and only Kurama was left in his place. In between his fingers he held the top of a bloody cloth with a lump inside. It was no secret was the lump was in truth "What's the matter _Ripper_? I thought you liked dismemberment? You don't need this, do you?"

"My heart. Give it back, Give it…" he walked towards Naruto out of desperation before falling over and passing out with his hand left in the open position. Naruto kneeled down and placed the heart into his palm before walking across the bridge.

"Get him to a doctor and give a heart transplant and he'll live."

_'Great looks like I went Breaking Blade again. Oh well, even if I hadn't I still probably would've screwed him up. It's very likely that council of idiots chose him thinking that he could kill me. Well if they want to try than they should use something bigger, like a warship."_

After Naruto's brutal yet well deserved display of teaching the evil bastard a lesson he'd never forget, a shocked Sakura pointed towards a once again blue eyed Naruto and said "How could you do that to a person, you monster!"

Though Naruto was pissed off at the monster tag he argued back "The man I injured was a monster, anyone who would hurt and kill people like that for a reason like fun or power or money deserves punishment. I won't kill people though, at least not like that. And besides I didn't here you complaining when Sasuke threw a petty thief to his death!"

"That's different! He deserved it for not submitting to Sasuke-kun. That guy was just trying to kill _you_! If anything he deserves a medal for trying to rid the world of a worthless orphan like you!" Sakura argued back in her biased way.

Naruto once again just decided to ignore his former crush, before realizing that the door to the next room of the tower had opened on the left side and a bridge had connected it with the other side.

"Well you guys have passed the final pre-exam, so the third exam awaits you down that hallway." The dysfunctional team began walking down the hallway, but Naruto was stopped by Iruka grabbing his shoulder "Naruto, you did a good job choosing to keep Gilles alive despite his transgressions. But I know that in the future you'll fight enemy's that your heart just won't be able to spare. I've faced them as well, but don't. Hold back on your opponents, pass this exam and surpass me. Oh and keep a close eye on Sasuke, with his psychosis growing he could become more and more dangerous."

"You got it Iruka-sensei." Naruto then began running down the hallway thinkng about what the next challenge in the exam would be.

* * *

"Congratulations on making it through the second exam, as well as the final pre-exam. Usually that the pre-exam kills at least a couple of the teams who make it that far, but all who did so passed. Though some did pretty much sucked. "She looked at Sakura when she said that.

Everyone of the rookies had made it out as well, as well as the Suna Siblings, Team Orochimaru, and Team Kabuto. A noticeable difference was that Zaku's arms had been completely shattered after a disastrous fight with Chouji after calling him fat.

The Hokage stood up from his chair in front of the statue of a tiger hand sign and began explaining what would happen "I'm afraid while most of you did exceptionally well in these exams, that to many of you made it through. So we need to weed a few of you out in preliminary round. Their are 21 of you now but by the end of this round that timber will be cut in half. If you are not sure you're entirely up to the task of going through two more tests than please leave now and come back again in 6 months."

Though Sakura wanted to quit she decided to stay so she could try to make "her Sasuke-kun" fall in love with her and sabotage Naruto, Ino, and Temari's chances. What was really shocking though was how Kabuto quit. Naruto was curious as to why but decided to keep his mouth shut. Sarutobi than began explaining the rules again.

"Now that he's gone there will be ten two person matches. This should take about 2 hours at it's most, and though killing your opponent is frowned upon it technically isn't against the rules. The only weapons allowed are kunai and shuriken. No katana allowed!"

_'Hm, so the Council knows I'm a swordsman and are trying to sabotage me by taking them away. Oh well, I can fight just as good while relying solely on my physical strength' _Naruto concluded in his head.

"The first match will take place effective immediately. Those whose names appear onto the monitor stay down here, while the rest head up into the stands and wait for your matches" The screen revealed itself from the wall and began flashing the names of the remaining examinees until it finally landed.

_Sasuke Uchiha vs Yoroi Akadō_

Fū walked past Sasuke still donning his Kakashi impersonation while heading up into the stands and whispered at almost unhearable softness "Hail Santatsu". Sasuke knew what this meant and smirked before facing his opponent.

The sickly looking proctor, Hayate than walked up and started the match. A large amount of chakra then began spraying out of his hand as he pounced on Sasuke, which was quickly dodged, which agave Sasuke an opening to hit Yoroi in the stomach with his hands turned into metal.

**"Valuable Hammer"**

Though it broke several ribs it caused Sasuke to recoil giving YoroI a chance to recover and counterattack from behind, kicking him the back. Due to the moment of weakness Yoroi took the chance to drive a kunai into the Uchiha's spine. Because of this,Sasuke was paralyzed from the waist down for a few seconds but by that time it was already to late.

**"Chakra Vacuum"**

Once Yoroi had his opponent pinned down in a hold, he began siphoning his chakra, in order to either defeat him or force into using the ROOT curse mark "Like my Chakra Vacuum Uchiha? It was a big mistake using a double-edged sword like that for a starting attack. Now I'm going to suck you dry of all your chakra!"

Even though this attack was normally a major advantage for Yoroi as most shinobi couldn't last very long in a fight without their chakra, in this battle it proved to a fatal mistake to use the jutsu. As after a few moments Yoroi's hand had completely turned into…

Gold.

Yoroi jumped back in fear and shock, desperately trying to figure out the cause of this abnormal transformation. The recoil allowed Sasuke to lift himself off the ground with his sharingan turned on, and his curse mark twisting around his face with a blood-thirsty expression.

"Like my Devil Fruit power trash. It's undocumented so far, but it now has the honor of an Uchiha giving it its name, the Riches-Riches Fruit. And now you all get to see its destructive power in all it's glory" After he was finished with bragging Sasuke began molten gold at the leaf spy from his mouth.

**"Golden Lotus Volcano"**

Though he barely managed to avoid the deadly natural projectiles Yoroi was still slowed down by the weight of his auric hand _'Damn you Orochimaru why didn't you tell me that he had a Devil Fruit power. Oh well, from what I know gold is a natural conductor of electricity, so focusing lightning chakra into these shuriken should fry this bastard like an egg!'_

He threw 8 shuriken charged with electricity with his normal hand in a last resort but he was in for another bombshell when the shuriken merely passed threw him with Sasuke's having holes on him with visible gold on the inside only for them to refill moments later _'Shit he's a logia!'_

"I grow tired of this pathetic fight. An Uchiha like me deserves a much stronger opponent than you. You have committed the crime of challenging your better, and your sentence is death" Sasuke sneered and slammed his fists down onto the ground, which created a ripple which ruffled up the surface. A golden fist came up from the ground and knocked Yoroi into the air. The hand then opened up and completely enveloped before dragging him back to the ground and melding into the shape of a mooing bull.

**"Brazen Bull"**

Within minutes the gold became a red hot color and Yoroi's screams of agonizing pain could be throughout Kûmen Temple, except they didn't sound human anymore. It sounded like an angry bull.

Most watched in fear or confusion as the spy was cooked alive, even Ino was horrified at the display of sadism from her crush. Only Sakura seemed happy, and even laughed at his torture. Eventually the screaming stopped, and the Hokage ordered the bull be cooled and taken away for instant burial in a panic.

"Kurenai-sensei, what the hell just happened?" Kiba asked shivering from the brutal death he had just witnessed. Though she was a very smart women Kurenai did not have a very good answer as she was in shock herself. However someone did have a good answer for what Sasuke just did.

"The Brazen Bull, an ancient torture and execution method which puts it's victim in a bul, shaped chamber. Heat is than added to the bull and the victim dies in agony, and due to a horn in the front his screams sound just like a bull. It was first made in Ancient Greece by inventor Perillos for the tyrant king Phalaris. When he was told its victims screams sounded like a bull Philaris decided to test the bull on it's inventor. Perillos was let out right before he died expecting to be rewarded, but he was instead thrown from a cliff to his death. Philaris sent several grecians to the fires of the bull before he was overthrown and died inside it himself." Naruto explained sitting down in a relaxed position.

"Please Naruto-baka, how would an idiot like you know about something that happened before the Red Line was created" Sakura once again tried to discredit him, but she quickly shut her mouth when she realized he had the same look in his eye from when he nearly killed Gilles the Ripper earlier that day.

Kurenai knew why Naruto was in that mood and why he knew of the brazen bull,being a veteran shinobi. Though Naruto was calmly relaxing on the outside, on the inside he was remembering the terrifying experience of being forcibly stuffed into a Brazen Kyuubi by drunk civilians on his birthday and passing out from the painful burns only to wake up in the hospital to those glares the next day.

* * *

**Remaining Examinees:**

**Tenten Virgo**

**Neji Hyuuga**

**Hinata Hyuuga**

**Zaku Abumi**

**Roronoa Naruto**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

**Rock Lee**

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Chouji Akimichi **

**Gaara Sabaku**

**Temari Sabaku**

**Kankuro Sabaku**

**Sakura Haruno**

**Shino Aburame**

**Dosun Kinuta**

**Kiba Inuzuma**

**Misumi Tsurugi**

**Kin Tsuchi**

**Ino Yamanaka**

**Ikō: Goodbye Innocence**

**Skillet: Oh hey Ikō what's wrong with you?**

**Ikō: Wait, didn't Drawn Together put you in a coma?**

**Skillet: Oh no, don't be ridiculous I wouldn't touch that show with a 59 and 1/2 foot pole I went into a coma cause of all the French fires image over the weekend **

**Ikō:… I WATCHED THREE EPISODES OF THAT SHIT!**

**Skillet: Well you still get the raise and read the chapter, something happens that you'll like. By the way where's Cedric**

**Ikō: Oh he's in the corner**

**Cedric:*Hums Toreador***

**Ikō: Damn that game is scary.**

**Skillet: Well time for the authors note**

**(A/N): So how many of you guys hate Sasuke more than you already did? If you think he's hit the moral event horizon now, just wait until next arc and see what he does. And for those of you who are wondering the brazen bull was a real execution method and the story behind it was real as well. The next several chapters will be covering the preliminary fights as I want to add more to the fights that was actually there. There will be at least 2 fights for chapter. Now before I get Cedric some medicine I have an important announcement to make!**

**Contest:**

**That's right, I'm having a contest that goes as this. In the chapter their's a scene that was based off of a scene from an anime that is on my top ten favorite anime list on my profile. If you're one of the first ten to correctly ****guess which anime and which scene you have a chance to get to choose a Devil Fruit! After my current I'll post a poll with the final ten and their Devil Fruit suggestions. Here's what you have to have in your review.**

**-A username (even if your a guest just come up with something**

**-Your Anime guess**

**-Your Scene Guess**

**-Your Devil Fruit Guess**

**And no suggesting characters as I'll decide which character best suits the fruit. And by the way… This is Halloween!**

**. .**


	7. The Santatsu Foundation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did Sakura would have stayed the way she acted back in the Kazekage Arc instead of going back to a whiny load in the very next arc.**

**Cedric: Hey Skillet, weren't supposed to upload my story's next chapter before this one's?**

**Skillet: Yes, but your next chapter is the Halloween special. One that I have to watch an entire CGI anime to get a good grip on! So it will come out some time in the final week of ****October. **

**Cedric: Wait they make CGI animes?**

**Skillet: Yeah go figure.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 6: The Santatsu Foundation**

After brutally killing his opponent through means of his Devil Fruit power Sasuke collapsed from the extreme strain put on him by his curse mark. In response to this Fū still in his Kakashi disguise picked up the unconscious Uchiha and shushined him off somewhere else.

The remaining contestants seemed either horrified or interested after Sasuke's I'll gotten win and after a short heated conversation between Kurenai, Naruto, Kiba, and Sakura Hayate announced

"Alright now that our…interesting first match is over we have to, AHACHAHACHSHAACH , excuse me, we have to move on to the next match." Thr sickly proctor then pressed the button which activated the random selection.

_Shino Aburame vs Zaku Abumi_

Despite his injured state Zaku still appeared very confident and looked around the room declaring "So I wonder who the poor sucker who I'll be facing will be?" Before focusing onto the secretive one in the green cloak.

As their two jounin sensei's locked glares the opponents walked down the stairs as Hayate called them "Alright as soon as your both ready to begin the fight will start."

_'Wait that's the guy who Chouji crippled during the second exams. How troublesome, how's he even going to fight?' _Shikamaru pondered in his own way on the match at hand.

"Bad luck for this sound jerk. Besides that red headed psychopath in the corner of room Shino would be the last person I'd ever want to face in this exam. It would be a complete and total floor-stomping even with someone as awesome as me fighting!" Kiba bragged about the strength of his best human friend.

Moments before the start of the fight began the Jonin instructor from the sound disappeared in a flash of smoke. Shino then tried to warn his opponent of what was to come "I'd hate to stop a fight between us, but if we go through with this, your defeat won't be something you can simply recover from. Withdraw and your survival will be guaranteed."

"Sorry weirdo, but chubby over there didn't do as much damage as I've let on. In fact I think I've got a little of movement in my right arm" Zaku revealed as he pulled out his arm from his cast very slowly.

With his good arm ready for combat he charged at the Aburame, though the strike was quickly blocked "You couldn't defeat me if you were able to use both of your arms!" This taunt made Zaku visibly angry as shown in the way began sucking air into a hole on his palm.

**"Bursting Air Cannon"**

Though it appeared that the blast had taken Shino out at first he quickly rose from the dust shocking Zaku to an extreme extent. He didn't have much time to think about how his attack failed when a strange crawling sound filled the air. The crawling from the beetles coming from Shino's collar.

_'What the hell is wrong with this guy? There are beetles coming out of him like crazy. He must have eaten a Devil Fruit. Or is this some sort of freaky justu like that fat guy's'_

"Well now that your little horror movie stunt is over, what are you going to do?" Zaku asked once the bugs march came to a slow halt, only to realize an entire swarn was coming from behind him.

**"Swarm"**

"If you're wondering what's going on, these beetles are a rare type that attack prey in an incredibly large swarm, and suck it dry of its chakra. And with an army if this size you'll be a living skeleton in 30 seconds flat. The only thing you can really do is forfeit by this point as fighting two opponents at once with your handicap would be nothing short of impossible. If you attack me, the swarm will charge you while your open. But if you attack my friends then I can easily defeat you while your preoccupied. Either way you will suffer a slow and painful death. It's always best to have an ace in the hole."

Zaku looking frustrated an enraged pulled his left arm from its sling and pointed both of his air cannons at Shino and his swarm "I'm not going to lose like that, not ever again! You're right, when you're fighting you should always have an ace in the hole. right!"

_'So he was faking this entire time, interesting…"_

"Time to die bug freak!" Zaku screamed in frustration as he prepared to activate his jutsu.

**"Bursting Air Cannon!"**

Though it appeared that Zaku had this in the bag that changed when he used fired of the cannons both of his arms were blown off of his body causing him to scream in agony ash everyone in the stands looked on in fascinated horror, similar to the reaction when the last match ended.

"If your confused as to what happened look over at what used to be your arms.". He did as told and saw that several beetles were crawling out of the holes in the dismembered flesh "When you were distracted by my little seminar I took the liberty of plugging up those pesky vents in your arms. Both arms just to be safe, you see while an ace in the hole is good, two are better"

Frustrated and confused, Zaku wanted to kill the entomologist but as he no longer had any arms to fight with he could only cry "YOU BASTARD!" Before several painful pricks pierced his back and the life drained from his body as he fell back, dead as a doornail with several harpoon like stingers in his back.

"I deeply apologize for being the cause for your premature death, but seeing as your arms are no longer of any use, you can't really be a shinobi anymore. So I decided to spare you the shame of returning home in such a sorry shape, by sending several cone snails after you. Just one sting is bad enough to put your life on a thread, so as you can imagine five would be enough to kill you instantly."

"Winner of the second match, Shino Aburame." Hayate said as the medics loaded the sound cadaver and it's severed arms onto the stretcher an Shino headed up into the stands. Though he was stopped by someone nearby whoa wanted a few questions answered.

"Hey Shino, their are a few things that concern me. Like the fact that you attacked using cone snails when normally Aburame's can only make bonds with chakra beetles. Care to explain?" Naruto confronted Shino on the anomaly. However when he looked again Shino was on the floor pouting again.

"Why are you pouting man? Are you still upset on the fact that Naruto didn't recognize you when we met him again? Dude your were more covered up than he was, and we didn't know it was him until you told us. So in what world it would it make sense for him to recgognize him?" Kiba tried to get his teammate out of the sorry state, before he stood up and turned towards Naruto.

"The fact that I'm all covered up, shouldn't matter to an old comrade!" Shino exclaimed while in a rare "nice guy" pose.

"OLD COMRADE,WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SHINO, WE NEVER EVEN TALKED BACK AT THE ACADEMY?!" Naruto gave an extremely irritated response towards his entomologist classmate.

"Alright there's no real sense in arguing with you at this point in time, I'll just tell you my little secret. Sasuke's not the only Devil Fruit user around here, I ate the Pest-Pest Fruit which allows me to control anything bigger than anything that cannot be seen by the naked eye, and smaller than a hedgehog, even things that typically wouldn't be counted as insects by the scientific community such as arachnids,gastropods, crustaceans, and even rodents such as mice or rats. It really suits me as it extends the reach of family's jutsu to a much greater extent." Shino explained his power, to a shocked Kiba and Hinata, and a satisfied Naruto.

"Wait a minute Shino, you had one of those freaky fruit powers all this time and never told us?" Kiba asked confused as all hell.

Before Shino could give a response Hayate called "Alright now that that's over, it's AHACHAHACHSHAACH! It's probably best that we move right onto the third match." He then once again pressed the button which started the drawing process untill it landed.

_Kankuro Sabaku vs. Misumi Tsuguri_

_'Looks like it's my time to shine.' _Kankuro thought as he walked down the stairs to his opponent.

"Sorry makeup boy but I'm nothing like Yoroi. I won't take stupid risks in a fight, even against children. A bit of advice, give up the moment I begin my attack. If you do it will be over quickly." Misumi tried to wane Kankuro from fighting.

This didn't seem to deter the odd looking boy who merely took the wrapping off of his back and said "Funny, i was just about to say that, but minus the quick and painless part."

"Alright if your done talking then let's begin the third match." Hayate said and walked to the side.

Kankuro responded to the call immediately and swung his fist at Misumi though it was quickly caught "Let me do you a favor and this little skirmish quick."

"You can't end it if I end it first" Misumi made a really bad comeback before twisting his arms and the rest of his body around Kankuro.

**"Soft Physique"**

"Now this fight is over sand shinobi. I've dislocated every bone in my body's and used my chakra to control them and twist my self around you. Now all you can do is forfeit, cause if you move even an inch I'll snap your neck like a rice cracker!" Misumi commanded the ensnared Kankuro.

Despite his horrible situation Kankuro retained his confident smirk and tempted fate even more than he already had "Try me!" In response to this Misumi immediately twisted his neck around breaking it.

Even though it appeared Misumi had won the fight, he looked down to see that Kankuro's skin was falling off like broke glass. After he noticed the surreal scene Kankuro turned his head to reveal that he was really a puppet.

"Good job, but it's my turn so say goodbye!" The puppet said before wrapping its long limbs around Misumi in a crushing squeeze. Before one could wonder what had happened to Kankuro, the mummy like object unraveled itself to reveal the true Kankuro inside with his hands attached to the puppet by chakra, much like a certain Shichibukai currently in a fight for his rule over a New World island.

Realizing there was no possible way he could win anymore Misumi gasped in agony "That's it I give up. You win just stop it!"

"But if your bones are all crushed think about how more effective your freaky little jutsu will be!" The cat headed suna-nin kept pulling the strings of his weapon tighter and tighter before all of Misumi's bones snapped, killing him instantly.

"Winner of the third match, Kankuro Sabaku." Hayate officially finished the match as the medics loaded the third corpse of the day onto their stretcher.

"Man, this chunin exam is a fricking bloodbath! This is the third guy that's died so far today. It's a good thing I'm so amazingly strong otherwise I'd be worried for my life." Kiba said confidently despite the fact that his legs were shaking.

"Hey that's what this career brought you. Believe or not most shinobi aren't the kind honorable people most believe them to be. Some prefer to leave their opponents alive while some prefer to kill them. No use judging them if they aren't harming people who didn't sign up to put their life on the line like we decided to do 13 years ago." Naruto gave Kiba his words of wisdom. While some were shocked at Naruto's profound words, some just thought he was blowing hot air. But one thing was for sure, there would be much more bloodshed later that day than ever before.

* * *

In a dark dome shaped room somewhere else inside the tower two men sat on thrones. One looked like a world being carried by six hands, and was sat on by Danzō the corrupt chairman of the civilian council, and the other throne was carved into a crescent moon and was sat on by a masked man who's mask had an orange swirl to it and wore a black hooded cloak with red clouds. The final and empty throne was carved into a viper and though it was empty it was no secret who it truly belonged to.

"Where is Orochimaru? His tardiness is very unbecoming, considering he's one of the only three in this organization with the rank of Santatsu. You'd think he'd be a bit more respectful of the title bestowed onto him." The masked man complained.

"Relax Tobi. Unlike us Orochimaru is scum, and has to watch his movements in order to avoid getting caught. The only reason I invited him into the foundation was because of his power, even if he is on par with the snake-bitch and the demon brat." Danzo tried to reassure one of his business partners.

Tobi still didn't seem very impressed and even a bit angry at the corrupt politician's arrogance and pride "Don't push your luck, you may be able to defeat Itachi, but don't forget your still the weakest of the three Santatsu and I could give an incredibly painful death in less than 5 seconds. In fact I don't really think Orochimaru would appreciate what you have said to him!"

"You better keep quiet Tobi! After all a man of my greatness could easily have you labeled a missing-nin and put to death in this very tower if I choose to, because herof my grip on this villages government!" Danzō tried to deter Tobi from spilling the beans which only got him a glare that said "Shut up or I'll kill you slowly and painfully you stupid, ignorant old man"

"Now, now you guysssss, we ssssshouldn't be arguing like thissssss! After all teamwork is important, as taught by my ever so great Sssssarutobi-sensei, who never made the mistake of favoriting me over his other sssssstudents, not knowing of my true desires. If he did I bet it would be one of his biggest regretssssss to this very day." Orochimaru quipped as he walked into the room and sat down onto his throne.

"I have ssssucessssfully completed the tasssk I was assssigned to, and delivered Sssssasuke-kun the devil fruit. His dissssplay of power was rather amussing to watch. Though now i'm a few men ssshhhort. Now Danzō when ssshhhould Fū get here with Sasuke-kun? I'm growing a tad impatient."

"He should be arriving any moment know. Fū is one of my strongest and reliable ROOT members, so much so that I didn't even have to use my emotional seal on him. How do you think he earned the rank of Nitatsu so fast?" Danzō answered a restless Orochimaru while the aforementioned henchman walked into the room with an awakening Sasuke who he set down before flashing out of the room.

Once the Uchiha was rested onto the ground he awoke very slowly with a sharp pain piercing the back of his neck once again, to see the three men gathered around him,only one of whom he wasn't familiar with.

Out of rage for his previous defeat Sasuke turned on his sharingan and pounced on Orochimaru with a Welders Knife only for the curse mark to shock him again "Well that was very rude Sssssasuke-kun, especially to ssssssomeone who spent so much time and money on making sure you got that Riches-Riches Fruit power of yours! Now it's time to show you what that Ssssssantatsssu Foundation I mentioned earlier is all about. You see I am Orochimaru, Ssssshogun of the Sssserpent, one of the three Legendary Sssssannin, and one of the only three organization that have the rank of Santatsu, alongside my comrades of course."

"Thank you for the introduction Orochimaru-san. I am Tobi, Shogun of the Moon" Tobi introduced himself as he pointed to the symbol on his throne.

"And I am Danzō Shimura, Chairman of the Wise and Powerful Civilian Council of Konoha and the Shogun of the Heavens. I am also the commander of ROOT which your new Sensei is apart of. I'm afraid the real Kakashi tried to defy me by looking for Naruto so he had to be put away were he shall stay until his death at Loguetown in 6 months."

Sasuke just gave his signature arrogant smirk at would normally be horrible and traumatizing news and said "Please after he was demoted all that one-eyed dumbass could ever think about was the dobe, I'd be as dumb as him not to be able to tell the difference . That idiot deserves to be put to death for dishonoring the Uchiha clan!"

"Hm, I'm glad you feel that way Sasuke, because you have ambition, like the rest of us in Santatsu, so I think you'd be a perfect fit for the organization. Care to explain the fundamentals of us Tobi?" Danzō asked his comrade

"Surely Danzō. The Santatsu Foundation is dedicated to creating a perfect world where there are no such things as shinobi, pirates, or marines as they are no longer needed due to the authority of a divine figure, Asura. You see, though this legend has been lost to time it is said that the Seven great plates shifted into the Red Line, the God of War Asura planted a tree called Asura containing a different kind of Devil Fruit. Chakra Fruits, that whoever ate them would have just a bit of Asura's energy in them, with some mastering it to the point of being able to create an Asura Shroud. The shinobi of today as well as a few others scattered across the world are the descendants of the first eater of the fruit Kaguya. The backlash however was a brutal one. A demon with the same name as the tree with ten tails rose and began rampaging. It would take 23 years before the beast was divided into nine pieces and sealed into stone were it remains to this day by the son of Kaguya, Sage Frankenstein. Though a few have managed to master the Asura Shroud, none have managed to truly gain the godlike powers of Asura like Frankenstein had. But from texts found in the wreckage of Ohara we've discovered a way to revive the power of the war god. You'd have to construct a massive tower laced with several chakra vents and seals with a large receiver at the top which is connected to a lacrima which contains a fuel source of the three great eyes of the god. The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan, the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan, and the Rinnegan of the Senju clan. Our targets for the Sharingan are Itachi, and our target for the Rinnegan is a man called Pein, whom almost nothing is known about. We have already retrieved the Byukagan from the corpse of Hizashi Hyuuga."

Seeing as Tobi was close to collapsing for breath from the long explanation Danzō continued for him "Of course we need to clear a space for the tower, a space that Konoha would clear quite nicely. After all this place of shattered tools can barely handle an attack from one biju, so there's no way it could handle one from two of the demons. Once the project is complete I will become the god of war and make the world as it should be, with the noble an deserving like us ruling, while the weak and scum are damned to hell like the demon fox, the snake bitch or Itachi. I could even revive your entire clan in a millisecond with that kind of power. All you have to do is join our ranks to take down that sengle bag of shit Hokage. And since your so powerful we won't start you off at the mookish rank of Shotatsu. You'll be a Nitatsu, the elite of our foundation and in the event one of us dies you take over their left over spot. Now doesn't that sound nice Sasuke-san"

Sasuke gave the corrupt politician a devilish sneer that spoke for itself. But behind the corner of the passage way of the corridor another shinobi not apart of the organization looked on horrified. This man was Ibiki Morino.

_'There going to kill Naruto. There going to kill Sarutobi. There going to kill Anko, my little sister…No I'm not going to let what happened to Idate happen to them. I have to warn the Hokage'_

"Now for your first asssssssignment as a Nitatssssu, kill the vermin hiding behind the doorway. Would you do that Ssssasuke-kun?" Orochimaru ordered as Ibiki's eyes widened to an extreme width before taking off readily.

"With pleasure, Orochimaru-sama."

Though Ibiki was sprinting towards the arena elsewhere in the temple as fast he could, especially after he heard casual footsteps coming in his direction his movement came to a painful halt when his feet stuck to the ground with an incredibly painful burning sensation. He looked back to see that his feet had been welded to the ground by heated gold.

**"Golden Lotus Volcano"**

"How amusing how you thin you can escape my wrath. The moment you stood against an Uchiha your fate was sealed. Especially one of my stature." Sasuke taunted his prisoner as he used his Devil Fruit power to prepare the killing blow.

**"Titanic Welder's Knife"**

Ibiki still didn't falter however and prepared to fight back "You underestimate me brat! You may have a Devil Fruit power, but I'm a captain in the Gotei 13. It will take a lot more than cheap tricks to-"

**"Kamui"**

**"Crash Wave"**

Before Ibiki could release his own attack on the arrogant Uchiha, a hand stuck out from the wall and striked him with a powerful wave of force "Sasuke, don't get too cocky. If it weren't for your cursed seal you'd stand no chance against this man. Now finish him off before we're spotted."

"Hn, with pleasure Tobi-san."

Seeing as he was trapped in between a rock in a hard place Ibiki made a last ditch effort to warn them by screaming at the top of his lungs "NARUTO, ANKO, YOU NEED TO RUN!" That was the last thing the interrogator could say before his blood spattered against the walls of the temple.

* * *

**Remaining Examinees:**

**Tenten Virgo**

**Neji Hyuuga**

**Hinata Hyuuga**

**Roronoa Naruto**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

**Rock Lee**

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Chouji Akimichi**

**Gaara Sabaku**

**Temari Sabaku**

**Kankuro Sabaku**

**Sakura Haruno**

**Shino Aburame**

**Dosun Kinuta**

**Kiba Inuzuma**

**Kin Tsuchi**

**Ino Yamanaka**

**(A/N): Exposition, Expostion. Toss shit out ASAP. Now the goals of the main antagonist group of the story are revealed. So how will this develop into the story. Well that will be revealed later on. On a sadder note it appears that the Naruto manga will he ending next month. While it's not the best manga out there it's still the one I've stuck with the longest, and without it I can guarantee I wouldn't have gotten int anime in the first place. So a moment of silence for the ending of the franchise. Until the next movie comes out that is…**

**Well that was fun. Now the contest from last chapter is,still going on but with a new chapter a new question comes to rise. And that's "What happened to Zaku's arms in the manga?". My version had a different detail that I want to see if you hardcore mangaka's can figure it out. The rules for the contest were written in the last chapters authors note. Now let's get this rec over with so I can sleep.**

**Skillet's Fanfic Rec's:**

**Today's rec will be…**

**Shadow Fox:  
**

**Now I won't be recommending that many stories where the were abandoned. But this one is easily one of the best written out of the ones i've recommending. The plot is similar to mind where Naruto runs away after the wave mission, but due to a different reason. He comes across a clan of foxes that have shadow like properties, and trains with one before joining the sound village not knowing what Orochimaru is really like. Not only is this pretty expertly written but the author provides some interesting insight on the suckiness of the quality of some of the works back when this was published. It's a shame the author gave up when they did cause I would definitely have liked to have seen more**

**See you next time folks! And by the way $500 Naruto beats emo-kings ass in, but he's still forgiven in the end because of some stupid stuff. **

**. . .**


	8. Killer Kunoichi and Shaky Shikamaru

**Disclaimer:****…**

**Ikō: AGGGGHHH I AM SO FRICKIN' SICK OF THIS STUPID ANNOYING NEVER ENDING HIATUS! ITS SO FRICKIN' BORING AROUND HERE!**

**Cedric: Get over it you big baby Skillet's still depressed and he's barely able write my story which takes a lot less effort to write then this one. It's gonna take awhile for the wimp to get back on his feet.**

**Ikō: I know that but it's so boring around here without him here to annoy me. There's gotta be something we can do while he's in the real world. Maybe I can dig through his computer like I always do when I'm bored **

**Cedric:You do realize if he catches you doing this he's going to totally kill you right? Whoa, what's with all the School Days crap. I thought he hated that anime!**

**Ikō:That is definitely not why I have been using his computer while it's off. Wait he already had a draft of Chapter 7?**

**Cedric: I wouldn't upload it in its present condition. It's not very long and it probably edited yet. And the last time it wasn't edited properly the chapter became an utter mess.**

**Ikō: Relax there wasn't going to be much happening in this chapter anyways from what I've heard so it was pretty easy to write. What's the worst that could happen?**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 7: Killer Kunoichi and Shaky Shikamaru**

"Alright let's begin the next, and try not to kill each other this time, our morgue workers are busy as it is" Hayate said before giving a small cough and activating the monitor.

"I wonder who I'll be set up to fight. Hopefully it will be somebody I can bring myself to fight." Hinata wondered out loud.

"Face it Hinata, you'll probably get some weirdo with Devil Fruit powers. This exam is filled to the brim with them."

Naruto looked up to the Inuzuka and made a comeback "Hey some of my best friends on the Grand Line have Devil Fruit powers. And besides at least their house broken unlike you."

"HEY WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED MEAN, ASSHOLE."

Before Naruto could speak again, he saw a match up which was sure to be one of the most disappointing of the exams.

_Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka_

_'Well this should only last about five minutes'_

"Alright, could the ones selected please come down so we can begin the fourth match?" Hayate requested.

Both girls walked down the stairs with equally smug looks on their faces, though neither of them had much reason to be. Sakura came from an average civilian family, who not only drove their daughter to pursue Sasuke relentlessly to get the Uchiha clan's estate, but also had a seat on the Civilian Council and abused the power just as much as anyone else on the council did.

Ino however came from a clan which intended on fully preparing her for the harsh life of a shinobi unknown to most civilians. However it all when down the pooper once the Academy and Sasuke came into the picture turning her into just another pathetic fangirl.

After a few moments of staring each other down Ino began to speak "I never thought I would end up fighting you, at least not this quickly on. But don't think I'm going to go easy on you just because we used to friends."

"Begin"

As soon as the word was given the kunoichi went after each other like a pair of mad bulls. Ino initially delivered a sweep kick which Sakura jumped to avoid. After that was avoided the rivals began boxing at each other with all the fury they could muster. After about ten minutes of this the two broke apart their fight and glared at each other with a great amount of rage. Eventually Ino gave an vain grin and boasted

"You should just give up now forehead. We both know i've been training harder and know more jutsu than just the basics they taught us six years ago. Everyone here is improved a bit if they haven't shown it yet, even Naruto seems to have gotten stronger. All except you. That's why Sasuke-kun is mine!"

"Oh yeah you pig, I've always been superior to you. Everyone in this room should be bowing to me. Next to Sasuke I'm the best of our class. Your just saying all those things cause you know i'm better and your jealous of my skills as a kunoichi and ultimate beauty!"

"That's it forehead your going down!"

And in less than a minute what had had been a decent match had been turned into nothing more than a pathetic catfight with hair pulling,screeching, biting and clawing while rolling on the floor. This disgrace to the art of women's shinobi fighting lasted for about thirty minutes, and started to make some the foreign genin and jonnin in the audience sick to their stomach. Sarutobi could only pinch his nose and hold his head down from shame. Kiba started chanting "catfight" for a brief amount of time resulting in a sigh from Hinata and a tackle from Akumaru. Eventually this humiliating display became to much for one of the prideful in her position as a Kunoichi in the audience, Tenten.

"That's it, your both the most pathetic excuse for kunoichi I've ever seen in my life. How could the academy's standards drop so low in less than a frickin' year. If Tsunade, one of the greatest kunoichi in the history of the world government could see this disgrace to the art of ninja she'd pound both of your, EMPTY, STUPID, USELESS HEADS INTO THE GROUND, WHICH WOULD PROBABLY RISE UP AND JUMP INTO THE CALM BELT JUST TO CLEANSE ITSELF OF YOUR **PATHETIC!FANGIRL!BLOOD!"**

Both Kankuro and Temari who had both felt dirty watching the match decided to support her after both participants had frozen from the weapon specialists words.

"She's right you know this is the worst match I've ever seen. Blondie, you're apart of one of this village's smartest clans yet your so stupid you throw all training away for a guy. And pinkie your just flat out scum, just because you have two hot guys on your team is no reason to not train. I'd bet my money on you training the bare minimum and stare at the Uchiha's ass for the rest of practice."

"Yeah I'm sick of watching this bullcrap. I didn't come all this way east just to that THIS is Konoha's standard for female ninja in one of the worst fights ever. My puppets could put on a better show than this. While I'm not using them!"

This caused different reaction from both sides of fight. Their jeering appeared to have struck a chord in Ino's mind as she looked down in the same shame Asuma had.

_'But I was one one of the best in our class. I can't be weaker then Naruto… Can I?'_

She was broken from her own thoughts by a ignoring voice coming straight from Sakura's mouth she stood up and pointed at her critics

"Bah, you're just a bunch of losers who are just jealous of my incredible beauty and skill as a ninja. That's why you denied my greatness over you during our match in the forest isn't it sand bitch. You and your dumbass sand dune of a country can go take a hike far away from me because you don't even deserve to have founded by your lame-o Kaze crappy Kage!"

"WHY YOU STUPID LITTLE COW!"

The two insulted siblings immediately went for the nearby wastebasket and began pelting her with whatever they could find in it, an action Tenten soon followed. By the time they were done Sakura was completely covered in garbage with her face as red as a beet. She tried to run up in an attempt to kill them, but she was held in place by something.

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu. **Now get this over with you three. I want to have enough chakra for when my troublesome match comes up." Shikamaru only Hinata noticed this he had a small blush on his face when Temari gave him a grateful smile.

After the garbage can was empty they began throwing their weapons at her,ranging from shuriken to exploding tags. Tenten had an almost unlimited supply due to being the daughter a blacksmith but the sand sibling ran out quickly.

"Well this sucks, and I was having fun, snapping that losers neck was actually pretty boring."

"Hey you can have mine. I'm an swordsman so I don't really use them that often."

Both of them were incredibly surprised at Naruto who just held out his weapon pouch nonchalantly.

"Bbbbut isn't she your teammate?"

"Yeah, and that's a punishment I'm damned to until I pass. Now get throwing so Hayate will call the match."

Understanding completely Kankuro grabbed the bag right out of his hand and threw it with all the force in his arm at Sakura's forehead knocking her out as Shikamaru released his jutsu.

"Winner of the fourth match Ino *cough cough* Yamanaka." Hayate said still grinning with amusement at how the match ended.

However to the confusion of most in the audience Ino didn't have a look of pride and happiness on her face, but once of reluctance and pain

"It's ok proctor sir, I withdraw I only won because they hit Sakura with all those weapons."

And with that she headed back into stands where a proud Asuma waited to pat her on the head for the honorable thing she had just done. She turned to her team, and saw that Chouji had a similar look of pride on his face, while Shikamaru just gave a sigh.

"Are you serious Ino, your this close to winning and you give it up over some stupid bullshit like that. Honestly, women are so troublesome."

"Oh yeah, then why did you help your Suna girlfriend throw crap at Sakura earlier. Maybe you don't think we're as troublesome as you say we are, you lazy slacker!"

"Don't be ridiculous Ino, I only did that because Sakura is a big pain in everyone's ass. It's not anything like that."

Seeing that Shikamaru was blushing even more Naruto decided to join in "Which is clearly why your redder than a drunk strawberry at a strip club. Honestly, I know a long nose who's a better liar than you!"

"Maybe you can impress her by winning your fight, then you can ask her to marry you!" Hinata followed suit in teasing the embarrassed Nara.

"Would all of you just shut up!"

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Shikamaru with the baby carriage!" The males of the exams including Asuma, Lee, and Akumaru sang/howled.

"Oh I give up, this is such a drag."

Everyone turned to Hayate as he began coughing, signifying that he was about to speak. Sakura's bruised and unconscious state had been loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the infirmary as opposed to the morgue like the last three.

"The fifth match begins now." He said as the board slowed to a stop and landed on Tenten and Temari, who assembled swiftly and silently in front of each other.

_'Alright, it's my turn now. After what happened last match these boys are going to need to see how real kunoichi fight.'_

"You may begin."

Tenten jumped back as the girl glared at her and began observing the arena ignoring Gai and Lee's loud cheering, and went into a defensive position.

"So your waiting for me to move, to bad cause my first move will be your last! Show me what you've got!"

Tenten quickly complied and threw a massive amount of weapons at her from the air, but if one blinked they wouldn't see Temari moving at the speed of sound to avoid all of them.

'_So she's measuring her distance, here comes her big move!'_

Once she was done Tenten began running around her trying to find her weapons blind spot. She flipped in the air with an scroll and began spinning and summoning at the same time causing a storm of of weapons to fly at the fan wielder, all of which miraculously missed. Temari just stood there with her fan slightly open to wher a purple circle could be seen.

"This is the first of three moons painted onto my fan. One all three are visible your fate is sealed, and you've lost this match."

_'Damn it, I wanted to save this for the finals and not waste it on this round but it's now or never.'_

The bun haired girl pulled out two red scrolls and placed them on the ground and began hand signs for the technique.

**"Rising Twin Dragons"**

As soon as she was done two dragon shaped smoke plumes rose up and twisted around to reveal the scroll spiraling each other. Tenten jumped and began summoning weapons like a pistol fires bullets only for Temari to blow them all away with the second moon.

She wasn't done yet though as she did another flip into the air and pulled the weapons back with ninja wire she had hidden on her fingers throughout the match. But this failed once again as before she could finish the attack Temari revealed the third moon and blew her back along with weapons.

"It's all over now." She then pulled her fan around her and vanished into thin air. Tenten looked around the arena in fear in desperation to see that her opponent was flying over her on her fan. Upon landing she swung her fan harder then ever, creating a slicing vortex trapping Tenten inside.

**"Wind Scythe Jutsu"**

"She fought valiantly but she'll never escape from that twister jutsu." Neji said concerning his teammate as she fell onto Temari's fan and coughed up more blood.

"Man this chick is crazier than most of the people I've met as a bounty hunter. You've got some weird taste in woman Shikamaru!"

"Drop it."

Hayate coughed for a bit more before announcing "Winner of the fifth match, Temari Sabaku. Now we're officially half way done with the preliminaries. I'm going to go get some Dr. Pepper from a vending machine or something."

Temari tossed Tenten off of her fan intending to injure her further by sending her flying onto her own weapons, but Lee caught her at the very last second.

"Now wait a second I know that she lost the fight, but that's no way to treat an opponent that's fought as youthfully as they can! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"Oh shut up you weirdo. Get out of my sight, and take that sack of garbage you call a teammate with you!"

This enraged Lee to the point of trying to attack her himself. She was going to simply block his leg with her fan, but before she could somebody was already in between them. Naruto.

"Bushy Brows, I know your upset about what happened to your friend but you should save your energy for fighting in your fight, and not getting yourself disqualified… And suna girl, let's get one thing straight here if I EVER see you do something like that again I'll kill you right then and there!"

_'So Kakashi, you're student is wise beyond your years. But I think we all know whom to thank for that. Thank you Zoro for being so incredibly youthful.'_

Somewhere in the New World, between Punk Hazard and Dressrosa a green haired swordsman shuddered with fear. He didn't know why, he just did.

"Alrightie then, let's start the sixth match." Hayate said as he once again pressed the button starting the monitor until it finally stopped.

_Shikamaru Nara vs. Kin Tsuchi _

"Are you kidding me, he gets to fight before I do. Come on already I want to fight!"

As opposed to Kiba, Lee just hung his head down in sadness at being passed up once again for somebody else. Naruto would have been upset if he hadn't fallen asleep where he was sitting.

_'Great, looks like I'm up next and against a girl! To make matters worse I have no idea what her jutsu is and she's already seen the basis of all of mine. I just have to keep this going until I have enough chakra to activate the jutsu I set up during Sakura and Ino's match'_

"Remember Kin, ponytail boy controls shadows. Watch the shadows closely."

"Are you serious Dosun, I'm not dumb like that pink haired hussy. Avoiding that sucky technique will be a piece of cake."

"Ready begin."

"Might as well stall for time as long as I possibly can."

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu" **

Kin immediately responded to the move and jumped away while throwing belled senbon needles. Shikamaru ducked to avoid them when he heard the bells, and they stuck into the wall.

"Belled senbon? Well aren't you original. Let me guess next your gonna throw two types of senbon, ones with bells, and ones without them. So while I'm busy dodging the ones with bells I'll be hit by the ones that don't."

After explaining this to his opponent he began avoiding every senbon thrown at him. But his movement crashed to a halt when he head a ringing from behind him. The bells from the senbon hanging from the wall were making noise on their own. He looked closer to see that the bells had wire to then. Right when he had realized she was pulling them with her own finger using the wire it was already too late and he had been hit.

"Shit, an inch higher and I'd be dead. I need to be more careful. Now it's my turn."

"Sorry but you lost that the moment you looked behind you" Kin said as she continued ringing the bells in the wall. After a few moments Shikamaru's vision turned blurry and he felt slightly nauseous. Soon he couldn't take more and he dropped to his knees.

"Now you know why you never ask for whom the bell tolls. Because it tolls for thee. The bells ringing let's of a harmful pitch that affects the ear and then the brain. First you get a migraine, and once it hits your grey matter you start seeing things that aren't really their."

Shikamaru tried to cover his ears in order to mute everything around him, but the bells just kept ringing and ringing. It was driving him completely insane.

"Covering your ear canal won't work now that the sound is in your head. It's pointless to do anything but accept defeat."

Once she was done gloating Shikamaru started to see multiple Kin's. He knew only was real, but the problem was he couldn't tell which one. He couldn't move any of his limbs,and every Kin had senbon in their hand and began tossing. Since he couldn't move to avoid them he was hit by all three.

"The next time I throw five and i'll keep adding two until you look like a porcupine. A roadkill porcupine!"

"Would you stop playing games with me! If you want to kill me so badly just get it over with!"

"Oh so your not a fan of my slow and painful way. Then I'll just have to kill you the QUICK and painful way!" But as she was gloating she felt her arm moving on it's own.

"Looks like my sucky technique worked just fine. Look at that thread over there, don't you find it strange how it would even cast a shadow from that high up? But then again you were probably more interested in killing me!"

Shikamaru then thickened his shadow to it's true length as he walked further and further back and began reaching into his shuriken pouch causing her to do so too.

"Are you crazy! If you throw that shuriken it'll be the same as committing suicide."

"Pretty interesting, don't you think? Like a game of chicken lets see who ducks first."

He he threw the shuriken and ducked back to avoid the star. Kinmthoguth she was in the clear but that stopped as she hit the wall behind her, and fell over struggling to stay conscious.

_'Great I'm almost out of chakra. This is still a pretty new technique, and if I miss then it will be over. But this is a sure fire technique."_

She slipped into a throwing pose and threw every senbon she had and did signs for monkey, horse, and ram causing the senbon to clone themselves in a million different colors.

**"Rainbow Senbon Hail Storm"**

Shikamaru gave an an appropriate look of a deer in headlights before doing his own hand signs of a rat, dog, and hare. Within seconds shadows shot up and ensnared the Senbon right before they could hit him.

**"Shadow Sheild Jutsu"**

"What, there's no way you could have spread your entire shadow across the room that quickly!"

"Your right which is why I set it up before this match even began. Back when I was holding Sakura down, I was also setting up the shadow wires in the grout of the tiles, and left them their until I had enough chakra to activate the jutsu, and till you were running low."

"Why… you…_little… shiiiit…_" were her last words before slipping off into unconsciousness from exhaustion.

"Winner of the sixth match, Shikamaru Nara"

The Nara walked up the stairs to praise from his teammates and friends. Well the one,s who were awake anyway. Meanwhile Temari looked at him with great intrigue after watching his strategy. Something that her younger brother took notice of.

"Well, well looks like your gonna be looking for romance in the leaf with the slacker. Here I thought you would be chasing after the Uchiha or the Cinderface."

In response to Kankuro's teasing about her small crush she took out her fan and clonked him on the head with it.

"Let's start lucky num*cough cough* sorry, number seven right away." The screen was activated right away and the match it landed on captured everyone's attention.

_Roronoa Naruto vs. Kiba Inuzuka_

"Alright! Looks like we got an easy one Akumaru. That stupid dobe is going down. Chunin rank here I come."

The Inuzuka's bragging quickly woke up Naruto, along with a quick shaking from Ino.

"Wakey Wakey Naruto, your match against dog breath is up."

"Aw man now why'd you do that Ino, I wanted to draw on his face while he was sleeping!"

"I apologize for bursting your bubble Chouji, but vandalizing the face of a swordsman with a 50,000,000 beri bounty on his head could be very detrimental to your physical and metal health. But their are other threats from doing so."

Shino pointed to Hinata who was giving Chouji her silent death glare which caused him to back far into the corner. After a loud yawn and stretch, Naruto stood up and popped his neck. With a grin on his face he walked down the stairs where his opponents waited for him.

* * *

Somewhere in a dark cave, several figures stood on the fingers of what appeared to be a statue of a screaming creature. Each of the men wore identical robes, but had widely different features.

They were all gathered around a young blonde haired man getting the life sucked out of him ever so slowly, until he finally fell to ground dead.

"The three tails has been extracted." The tall spiky headed figure in the center spoke in a deep loud voice.

One who had his hair slicked back and a three bladed scythe snarked to his boss "Yeah Lord Pein, one down eight to go. And only took fifteen years for us to get him."

" Relax Reaper, everything will come together eventually, in the meantime we should take care of the jinchuriki who killed Ikō, the Kyuubi. Brother, Genocide you shall do this."

Figures in the appearance of a spiky haired fishman swordsman, and a slender raven haired with his hair tied back into a ponytail nodded to Pein and vanished.

"Soon all will be as it should. And the man who ruined our lives will pay… oh yes Danzō, your going to pay…"

* * *

**Remaining Examinees:**

**Neji Hyuuga**

**Hinata Hyuuga**

**Roronoa Naruto**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

**Rock Lee**

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Chouji Akimichi**

**Gaara Sabaku**

**Temari Sabaku**

**Kankuro Sabaku**

**Shino Aburame**

**Dosun Kinuta**

**Kiba Inuzuma**

**(A/N): Hello everyone of you pathetic little readers out there. I am Cedric Von Tufeice, and since Skillet is still in a depression binging himself on zebra cakes in your world, I'll be doing the authors note from here on in. Because of this there will be no recommendation of another story and the contest question from the last chapter will remain until I can think of one. In the meantime there's news concerning the stories he writes. First off, my story doesn't have any draft documents we can upload, and he can edit later unlike this one, and since me and Ikō and I can't write to save our lives their won't be a new Voodoo's Disciple for a bit. That and I don't want to come in on Thanksgiving. Speaking of which the next chapter of this story will likely be uploaded during the break after Ikō is through editing it, so stay tuned! Or not, I could care less whether or not you mortals do… ****  
**

**. . .**


	9. The Strength of a Failure

**Disclaimer:****Skillet doesn't own One Piece or Naruto. If he did Sasuke wouldn't have been forgiven so easily. Make the teme work for it!**

**Ikō: Hey did you find the document for chapter 8 yet?**

**Cedric: I'm going as fast as I can Squidhead but it takes awhile for me to hack a computer even with Voodoo! Found it, hey you want to edit to where Naruto farts in Kiba's face again?**

***Unsheathing ten swords***

**Cedric:…Never mind…**

***Sheaths swords***

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 8: The Strength of a Failure**

* * *

"Now for the seventh match, and by the way Naruto, you're going to leave the katana with *cough cough* me. Remember the rules."

Naruto gave an annoyed glare at first but complied to his wishes and walked back over to his position in front of Kiba. With a grin he slammed his fists together and said "Not like it matters, I can put down this mutt even without my swords."

Kiba wasn't amused "Hey I was going to say the same thing, except with Akumaru instead of the swords!"

"So let me get this straight your going to fight me using a fricking dog. That is literally the most pathetic thing I've seen in a while."

"Nope, I was going to have Akamaru fight but since it's just you and not anyone who'll be a threat to me I don't think i'll have to."

Up in the stands Ino looked down onto the two opponents with an annoyed eye, as opposed to Hinata who just had a conflicted look on her face.

_'I want to cheer for Naruto-kun more than anything, but Kiba-kun would definetley be mad if I did.' _she thought to herself before Ino finally spoke out in annoyance.

"Ugggh, Kiba is being such an arrogant prick, I mean we've all gotten stronger over these last six years! Well except Sakura… But even so I think he's actually got a better chance. I mean, without his swords there's no real way Naruto could fight!"

"Actually Ino, I think that while my teammate is incredibly strong for his age, he lost this fight the moment he decided to have Akamaru sit out. The odds are at least 85% that Naruto will win, and if he had his swords with him they would be 99%."

"He's right you know, Kiba's completly screwed over."

"Wait what's that supposed to mean Shikamaru. If you're so smart then explain it to everyone"

Shikamaru just sat down and resumed pulling the Senbon out of his body from his body he got from his own match while giving his response "Oh forget it, if you don't understand what it is then it would be way to troublesome to explain."

_'Sorry Kakashi, but Naruto's licked in this match, it doesn't matter how much he's improved. Kiba and Akumaru has gotten better in their own right. And besides 20 x 0 is still 0.'_

"Naruto-san, you can do it. You're flames of youth will burn brightly today, prove to me you are my one and only eternal rival!" Lee cheered while Naruto just put his hood up incredibly embarrassed.

_'God dammit bushy brows…'_

"Alright then, when your ready *cough cough* you can begin your fight."

As soon as Hayate gave the word Kiba began focusing chakra throughout his body and got down on all fours. He started taking on more animalistic features such as longer hair, sharper fangs, and more claw like finger nails.

**"Beast Mimicry: All Fours Jutsu"**

In a flash Kiba had disappeared, and was heading towards Naruto at an incredibly fast speed. But before he could connect Naruto had kicked him into the wall, leaving a large imprint.

"What, how could Naruto be faster than Kiba when he's using his clan's jutsu. The Inuzuka are practically built off speed!"

"You really don't get it yet Ino? What a drag."

"Actually Shikamaru, I don't really understand what happened either, especially that since his swords taken away Naruto should be as weak as before."

"You too Chouji. Why do I always have to explain this stuff to you. It hit me when I saw him stop that fight between Lee and Temari earlier. During his training with Zoro, Naruto probably had himself trained to a large physical extent before he even started with learning the sword techniques. So while the Third Hokage or someone like that could still kick his ass with jutsu, in terms of raw physical power Naruto is probably the strongest person here. Not only that but he's also gotten a sharp rise in IQ while away. So in short if Kiba tries to fight him on his own he won't stand a chance."

Once he had recovered his orientation Kiba rose up from the remains of the wall, bleeding and pissed as all hell. With an enraged growl he charged at Naruto only to get punched into the ground.

"Stay still so I can kick your ass, you annoying little shit"

With all the anger and hatred he could bring out he swiped and clawed in an attempt to attack Naruto all of which were avoided and countered with a swing to the chest, stomach, or face. By the time it all was over Kiba was bloody, bruised, and aching. He tried to throw a punch at him, but it was caught and returned sending the Inuzuka flying into another wall.

Thinking he was down for the count Hayate decided to call the match "Winner of the Seventh match, Roronoa Naru-"

"NO! I'm not done yet. This is so embarrassing, I wasn't planning on having Akamaru fight till the finals, since I got you. But I don't think I have a choice, Akamaru time for your "treat"."

Akamaru bounded over to his master with a large amount of zeal in his step, and ate whatever he had in his hand right out of it. After he ate it the canine started shuddering and his fur started turning red as tabasco. He turned towards Naruto with a look that could kill and charged at him even faster pace then Kiba's first attack. Naruto didn't have time to move before Akamaru had tackled him to the ground.

"What the hell, were those food pills?" Naruto said after he finished coughing up blood.

"Hell yeah they are, and if you think Akamaru's bad while he's on those things, just see how fast I can go."

The very moment he took the pills his animal like features he got from the best mimicry jutsu such as a more gravely voice. Akamaru landed on his masters back while he was crouched down on all fours and transformed into an exact copy of him.

**"Beast Mimicry: Man Beast Copies" **

Both of the clones pounced at Naruto, who seemed fully prepared for what was coming toward him and put his hands into a position like he was holding his katana, despite the fact that they were still with Hayate.

**"Mutoryu: Tiger Hunt"**

The nonexistent swords knocked Kiba and Akumaru back with cuts on their transformed and strengthened bodies. Once he was back on his feet Kiba turned to Hayate and began complaining.

"Hey proctor he just used a style of swordsplay. He should be disqualified since you said that no swords were allowed!"

"Sorry but he's technically in the rules since he didn't use physical swords."

"Fine I'll just use another way of fighting him. Even if my man best copies won't do anything against him, I've got two other jutsu that are sure to do the job. Akamaru, it's for that move.

The still human Akamaru gave him a smirk, showing that he knew what to do and got back onto his masters back. The real Kiba threw several smoke bombs at Naruto completely blinding him. The pair seperated and charged at enough momentum to begin spinning in a dangerous ball of claws.

**"Beast Mimicry: Fang over Fang"**

Naruto stumbled around the smoke getting cut and tackled several times over by the two Kiba's. Remembering a similar experience during his fight with Ikō, he closed his eyes and let the rhythm of his opponents movements completely immerse him.

Once he had decided on a plan of attack he twisted torso body as fora as he could and ley loose as if pulling a trigger spinning himself around at an incredible circuit, blowing all the smoke as well as his attackers away.

**"Mutoryu: Dragon Twister"**

"Man Kiba's totally getting his ass kicked down there. Naruto sure has gotten a lot better since the academy. Is this even the same idiot who would always play pranks on Iruka-sensei and never stand a chance in sparring?" Ino wondered aloud.

"*Nomnom*, hey maybe he was failing on purpose like Shikamaru. Either that or the Grand Line is the best place in the world to train!"

_'You've gotta be fricking kidding me. Naruto was supposed to be the easiest fight in this exam, but he's totally killing me out here! I guess we have no choice Akamaru, we'll have use that technique. And I really wanted to use it against Sasuke or Neji in the finals…'_

**"Shadow Clone Jutsu"**

Once there was another Kiba, Akamaru ran under his master like he was a horse and the Kiba clone climbed onto the real Kiba's back.

_'A shadow clone. This is probably some sort of new jutsu I haven't even seen while learning about Inuzuka jutsu from those scrolls on Water 7 that Ice-pops had for some odd reason.'_

"Alright pipqueak, I'll admit you had a good run, but your no match for my strongest Beast Mimicry technique, which it invented myself! Say your prayers cause now your history!" Kiba said while doing a tiger sign.

**"Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Cerberus Wolf"**

A flash of smoke went out around the room, and when it finally cleared Kiba was gone. And in his place stood a giant three head wolf, reminiscent of the legendary beast that supposedly guarded the gates of hell itself.

**"Time to die Pipsqueak! **Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo:Tail Chasing Rotating Fang!"****

The beast that could once be called Kiba began rolling towards Naruto at a frightening speed, giving little time to move out of the run away train of an animals way, and even so badly cutting up his left arm. He turned around to see the wall Kiba had crashed into had been shredded into a disc like shape.

"Holy crap, a couple more seconds and that would've been me. I need to be more careful."

But by the time he had finished speaking Kiba had already pinned him won with his gigantic paw.

**"Too late bitch! **Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Fang over Fang to the Third Power!"****

Once a smoke bomb had been thrown down Kiba resumed his wild charge with Naruto right in the middle of it. But unlike the last time there was no possible way he could of forced his way out, or even find a hole to escape through. By the time Kiba had finished his feeding frenzy Naruto lay bleeding with several bruises and claw lacerations blanketing his body.

"No Naruto-kun you can't him beat you like this! Not after you've made it so far!" Hinata vocally tried to get Naruto to get up, much to the surprise of everyone else in the stands. Not that Hinata was rooting for Naruto, but the fact that she actually cheered for him out loud, against her arrogant teammate.

**"Are you seriously telling me you've still got a crush on this loser Hinata? He's pathetic! You here that squirt, pathetic! It doesn't matter what dream you follow! Hokage or the World's Greatest Swordsman, you'll never complete any of them! And you know why" Cause your just a sad little weakling and you always will be one! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"**

Right before slipping into unconsciousness Naruto remembered _'__All those years of being hurt, bullied, and nearly killed by the villagers as well as my asshole teammates. They always told me that my goals were worthless and that I would always be worthless. But then I met people who really believed in me like Jiisan, Aniki, Iruka-sensei, Konohamaru and his nakama, __the Straw hats, Hinata-chan, Bushy Brows and__ even InoShikaCho, or Kurama-san. And if I let dogbreath beat me here, I'll let all of them down. I swear I will make all of them proud, and prove every piece of of shit who tried to make my life hell wrong!'_

Despite the aching of his joints and the blood and sweat seeping out of every pore his body Naruto got up and stretched his limbs out in a "come at me" position.

**"Huh, you're still glutton for punishment. Oh well more fun for me, even if I only have enough chakra to pull of one more jutsu in this form"**

"Great you unhousebroken pain in the balls. That's exactly what I was counting on, now let's just get this over with."

**"Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Fang over Fang to the Third Power"**

_'Big mistake' _Naruto thought to himself with a grin as he prepared for another onslaught of scratches. After the smoke faded from Kiba's transformation and clone wearing off, in the middle of the battlefield stood three Kiba.

"Wait a minute! What the hell is going on here!" All three shouted the same time.

"What an interesting strategy Naruto has come up with. Using the transformation jutsu to make himself look exactly like Kiba. That way if Kiba attacks it will be a gamble, since it might be Akamaru. Intriguing indeed, I look forward to seeing how this ends up."

"Great idea Naruto, you are burning with youth with this match!"

"Well, that's a cute trick, but it doesn't after anyways. I can still find you with my sense of smell!" Kiba charged after the one he was sure was the fake, but when he connected with ground Akamaru was there lying in pain.

"Wwwhat, Akamaru? I'm so sorry buddy!"

He turned towards the other Kiba with nothing but pure hatred blazing in his eyes. He didn't care about his sense of smell, or the exams by this point. All he cared about was taking out his anger on the bastard who made him hit his closest friend in the world.

He slammed his fist into the other Kiba's face, sending him rolling onto the ground. He exploded in smoke again to see that it was Akamaru once again. Before he had time to think the Akamaru he hit first had turned back into the Naruto.

"Real smart move dogbreath-teme. You should've kept your emotions out of the battle, that way instead of letting what you saw fool you, you could have time think and realize that the other you had Akamaru's scent all over them, and that I had transformed into him after you hit you. Oh well not like it matters now!"

Now Kiba was pissed off beyond all logical belief_ 'All in this one match I've been beaten, cut, humiliated, and mocked by this loser. But tricking me into hurting my partner is pushing things to far. I'm going to make him pay with my last resort I got from that octopus fishman."_

Kiba pulled out two dark gray pills with a red stripe down the middle and began munching on them. As soon as he swallowed his muscles began pulsing heavily and his eyes turned turned a deep hue of blood red. Only Sarutobi and the jounin knew what they were.

_'Great, those energy steroids from those terrorists on Fishman Island. Neptune told me got rid of all of them but it appears Kiba somehow got a hold of them. Unfortunately Hayate can't disqualify him since they're technically in the rules as food pills. But I will have to confiscate them after the exams due to the dangerous side effects of aging!'_

"Enjoy your last moment of life dobe, cause after what you did I have no intention of letting you live."

**"Beast Mimicry: All Fours Steroid Bullet"**

Having very little sanity left Kiba made a mad dash towards Naruto. Realizing he had very little time to avoid what was now a wild vengeful beast, Naruto jumped over him while placing a small surprise on Kiba's back. Kurenai got a good look at what was attached to her student's back and tried to warn him.

"Kiba, Naruto's put an exploding tag on your back! Get it off right now!"

But it was already to late. By the time he had heard, the tag on his back blew up, sending i'm into a painful sleep.

"Winner of the seventh *cough cough* match Roronoa Naruto." Naruto began walking toward the stairs happy that he managed to win another hard match, but before he could make it…

"NOOOOOOOO! I WILL NOT LOSE TO YOU! YOU'RE JUST A PATHETIC LOSER WHO SHOULD HAVE STAYED DOWN AFTER THE FIRST HIT, WHY ELSE WOULD YOU BE TAUGHT BY ONE OF THE FILTHIEST CRIMINALS IN THE WORLD? BOTH YOU AND YOUR SUCKY TEACHER'S MERE EXISTENCE IS A CRIME!.

Naruto stopped dead in tracks after hearing the insane man's insults. Normally he would have just brushed it off, but when he insulted Zoro, he felt everything getting hotter around him.

"Hayate hand me my swords."

"But their against the rules remember! I can't do anything!"

"The match was over the moment you said I was the winner, so anything goes."

Seeing no point in arguing with the angered swordsman, he picked the katana up from the ground and tossed them into his hands. The swords were unsheathed and Naruto held two of his swords against each other at an angle and began rotating them different directions with Kurama in his teeth. Kiba got on all fours again with the remainder of his strength leered at Naruto with an animalistic gaze and made his final charge.

**"Beast Mimicry: All Fours Steroid Bullet"**

**"Santoryu: Sanzen Sekai"**

The moment Kiba hit the swords he was cut up, and rolled past him bleeding and out cold. And this time he wasn't getting back up.

"For the third time now, winner of the seventh match Roronoa Naruto."

"Woohoo! Go Naruto, you showed that unyouthful mutt who's boss!

"Your flames of youth burn brightly today. I wouldn't expect anything less from such a renowned fighter!"

"I can't believe it. Naruto's made it to the finals of the Chunin Exams! If you told me six years ago, I wouldn't believe it at all, but now it actually makes sense!" Ino said just as surprised as Chouji who was currently choking on potato chip.

"Hey I don't mean to say I told you so, but I told you so. Right Shino."

"Of course. Though I'd hate to side against my own teammate it only made sense that Naruto would be victorious. After all my calculations are almost never wrong!"

By the time Naruto was up the stairs and had cooled down from his last insults almost every genin left in the store was crowded around him with congratulations, except for the sand siblings, Dosun, and Neji.

"You were amazingly strong in this match, I hope if I win my fight we can face each other in the finals!"

"I've gotta admit Naruto, you were pretty kickass, but facing you in the finals will be such a drag."

"Yeah you showed that stupid jerk whose boss!"

Naruto smiled at finally being accepted among most of his graduating class, but what made him truly happy was seeing Hinata approach him with another case of oil.

"Nnnaruto-kun, Kiba hurt you pretty badly with his Cerberus jutsu. Do you want some more of my healing oil to tend your scratches?"

She was completely unprepared for when Naruto pulled into a warm embrace. She felt like she was going to faint again, but fought the weakening of her body and returned the hug. All the while Neji gave a scowl and turned away with a snort.

They broke the hug once they heard Hayate coughing again signaling he was about to announce the next fight. The medics loaded Kiba and Akamaru onto separate stretchers and Hayate finally cleared his throat enough to talk.

"Hey Naruto, Hinata, sorry to break things up but you can discuss your relationship later. Now we need to move on to the eighth match." he pressed the button and match that was selected shocked everyone.

_Hinata Hyuga vs. Neji Hyuga_

The Hyuga girl was visibly distraught at this turn of events, especially after Neji gave her a bloodthirsty and angered glare.

"Perfect, now that all the good opponents like Sasuke and Shino have won their matches, I had hoped I would get you. You're the only failure here who's worth my time."

_'Great, another Sasuke-teme, just what this world needed.' _Naruto thought as clickeed a sword from it's sheath, but deciding to show restraint put it back in and whispered into Hinata's ear.

"Don't let what that girly haired bastard says get to you Hinata-chan. As long as you fight as hard you can, you'll show him who's boss."

Once she heard the kind words from her (not so) secret love Hinata felt inspired to head down the stairs after her first cousin. The two family members stared at each other with great determination, for wildly different reasons. Neji broke this to give an arrogant smirk, typical of a title holder of rookie of the year.

"When you are ready you may begin."

While Hinata began to move into the Hyuga fighting stance Neji spoke from his arrogance.

"Before you go to far into this Hinata, it's best that forfeit now. You are a failure who was not meant to be a shinobi. Your to weak and afraid to hurt people. Not only that but you are easily persuaded. You lack confidence and feel inferior to everyone else here. Even the pathetic ones like Sakura. You should have never entered these exams, but a team of three is needed to enter the exams and you didn't want to let your teammates down. You don't really want to be here which appropriate since you should've never made it this far."

"No that's not true, it's not. I entered the exams to prove to myself and my father that I've truly gotten stronger." She said while looking at Naruto who was watching wide awake in the audience. Neji took notice of this.

"I see you have fallen in love with your years dead last. Oh well I guess, that's fitting, after all even failures like you and him have to find away to breed somehow. Even with that massive bounty the World Government's placed on his head, he will always be nothing more than a dobe. That' she cause people simply cannot change no matter how hard they want to. Geniuses like me and Sasuke will always be be geniuses. And failures like you, Lee, and Naruto will always remain failures. And you all must accept this fact, just like I have to accept how I was born in the Side Branch as opposed to the Main Branch like you. Since I am much better with byakugan than you I can see these things clearly. Despite your brave words, you would truly like to run from this match."

"No nothing your saying is true."

"Please, stop denying your self. Even without my byakugan turned on I can tell you're picturing yourself losing. You already know what you are Hinata, a pathetic fai-"

"OH WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP FOR FIVE SECONDS!"

Naruto's outburst caused everyone in the room to look over towards his way. Though his old personality flared out, he quickly regained his composure and began speaking towards Neji's way again.

"Hey Girlhair-teme, tell me if I'm such a failure then how come I've passed every exam up to this point without the so called "Top Kunoichi" and "Rookie of the Year". In fact I think the only reason your talking Hinata down in such a way is that your afraid to fight her and loose, so your trying to get her to quit so you won't look like an idiot. You coward, your the weak one around here, Not Hinata!"

_'That annoying pest.'_

_'Naruto…Thank you…'_

"Ignore his words. He's just trying to hide how feeble he is inside, since he wasn't born with talent like me. If you don't forfeit I'll be forced to kill you."

Hinata ignored his taunting, and turned on her byakugan, moving into her clans fighting stance, keeping Naruto's determination in her head. She focused all the chakra she had into her palms, to a point where a lion like shroud covered them.

"Bring it on, I'm not afraid of you anymore Neji!"

"Hmph, so be it then." He said while admitting of as much chakra as possible off of his body.

"Gentle Fist Style?"

"Yes my eternal rival, the signature taijutsu for the Hyuga clan and the strongest of any in Konoha. And it was makes Neji one of the strongest genin in this village if not the strongest."

**"Gentle Fist: One Body Blow"**

**"Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists"**

And thus the two Hyuga charged at each other with all the ferocity in the world. Hinata threw her attack first, which was blocked. Though it was blocked it caused Neji to lose his footing for a few seconds, giving Hinata a chance to break a few ribs.

After recovering his attacks became synced with Hinata's with equally strong and dangerous jutsu causing chakra to fly off their hands like blood with every once in awhile they would have to avoid each others attacks by moving out of the way. Eventually while Neji was dodging it gave Hinata another opening to finish him off with the lion in her right hand which he narrowly avoided.

This happened several times each time only avoiding a deciding blow by only a couple seconds. Eventually she appeared to have hit him straight in the stomach with her left hand.

"Did she get him?"

Silence engulfed the arena as an answer was waited for. A grim one was given when Hinata began coughing up blood, revealing that she hadn't him but it ws the other way around.

"How sad, even with one of the Hyuga's strongest jutsu at your disposal, your still pathetic. Do you see now Cinderface? This is what happens when you deny fate!"

Naruto felt microscopic chips of his teeth fly out of his mouth as he grinned together out if anger and frustration. None of it was directed at Hinata though, every ounce of hatred In his body was focused solely on Neji at this moment.

"I grow tired of this, I warned you that you would die in this fight, and now you'll see how right I truly am."

**"Eight Trigrams: ****32 Palms."**

Neji began striking his cousin in her chakra points as well as hitting several of her organs in the process, vital and otherwise. All it took was one more hit to gut to send her flying to the floor.

"Hinata, you should know that I'm completly out of your league and this will never change. Though you don't like it, this is what separates the elite like me and Sasuke, from the failures like you, Lee, and Naruto. From the moment you refused to forfeit, you signed your own death warrant. This is your last chance to make it out alive. Give up!"

She struggled to speak as she coughed up more blood "No, I won't give up. Even if it costs me my life, I will finish the match. And I don't go back on my word."

With that what strength she had left she stood back up, but then started coughing up more blood. Despite this she started her fight with Neji back up.

_'I'm not going to run away from this. I won't be a quitter anymore. Not with you watching. In six years you've gotten so much stronger, so I want to show you how much stronger I've gotten. You've always given so much courage, so I want to repay that debt, Naruto!'_

**"**Gentle Fist: One Body Blow"****

Her thoughts finally stopped when he landed one more blow on her, causing a large pillar of chakra to go flying out the other end of her body. As she coughed up more blood all she could do was collapse.

"You just don't get it. Even though you used such a powerful Hyuga clan technique, your blows were still ineffective. It's over!"

Up in the stand Gai began speaking again "Though I don't think anyone here wants to hear this after how hard she fought, there's now way Hinata will survive that hit to the heart. Normally the one body blow is an instakill attack, bu. To survive multiple hits of them takes some serious youth."

"You can't be serious, Hinata can't die from this match!"

Though Ino's words were loud and clear, Naruto couldn't stop gripping onto the railing of the stands to the point where they were actually bleeding slightly. He felt even worse than when he ran from the campsite all those years ago. Hayate approached Hinata to see if she was still conscious. When he saw signs he decided to call the match.

"Winner of the eighth match,-"

"No, I'm not done yet!" Hinata stood up, breathing incredibly heavily but not showing any sides of deviation besides that.

"Stop this Hinata. If you keep this up I'll be forced to kill you."

"Sorry Neji, but I absolutely refuse to give up. Not like this. I'm far from finished!"

"Are you really going to get your self killed over a dumb crush? You're a failure, and you always will be. Accept this fact and you won't suffer like this ever again."

"I'm not the one suffering here Neji. Even with my byakugan out of reach, I can still tell you're suffering much more than I am. You're the one who's torn up about the conflict about the fate between the main and side branches!"

Enraged Neji charged with intent to kill, only to be stopped Asuma, Gai, Kurenai,and Hayate.

"Neji, stop this foolishness, the match is over *cough cough* and you've one. The only reason I permitted Naruto to finish off Kiba last time is because of that bullshit Kiba said!"

"Yeah you promised me you wouldn't let this whole Main family business get to you. And here you are unyouthfully trying to kill your opponent!"

"I see the main branch is getting special treatment once again!"

Out of nowhere Hinata started coughing up more blood. Lee and Naruto jumped down onto the stands in order to check on her condition.

"Hinata, where are you hurting? Don't worry we're going to get you some help."

"Naruto…thank you for supporting me… I…I love youuuu."

Those were her final words before slipping into a coma. Naruto's eyes widened as a million thoughts raced through his head, until he settled on a reaction to her confession. The feeling was definitely mutual. He gave her a small peck on the forehead before they carted her off to the emergency room.

"Hey dobe, I have some advice for you if you intend on surviving these exams. First off don't support someone when it's clear they can't win. And second, once a failure, always a failure. That massive reward you've got doesn't change a thing. Sakura May be the dumbest person here but she's right about one thing. You are utterly hopeless, as a fighter, as natural talent will always beat hard work, because you can't change who you are!"

Up in the stands Shino and Team 10 were watching with great ire. Most notably Ino "Unbelievable, that jerk just had a ruin such a romantic moment. Hey Naruto, you better kick his ass for Hinata, or Billboard Brow and Sasuke will be the least of your problems."

Naruto just glared at Neji with more hatred then he'd ever felt in his life. He felt his eyes go slowly red as Breaking Blade slowly enveloped him. But a friendly voice next to him calmed him down.

"Naruto I personally apoligize for my teammates unyouthful words an behavior during the match. I hope in time you can forgive me."

"It's ok bushy brows. It isn't your fault you got Girly Hair-teme for a teammate. And besides, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. Cause if I get Neji in the finals, I'm gonna totally kill him!"

* * *

**Neji Hyuuga**

**Roronoa Naruto**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

**Rock Lee**

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Chouji Akimichi**

**Gaara Sabaku**

**Temari Sabaku**

**Kankuro Sabaku**

**Shino Aburame**

**Dosun Kinuta**

**(A/N): Man editing this chapter for that idiot was a huge pain in the**

***Fog Rolls in and a scary looking lady walks out of the fog***

**Cedric: Umm who the hell are you?**

**Bloody Mary: I am Bloody Mary, Spector of mirrors everywhere. And I have come to kill Skillet28561, Cedric Von Tufeice, and Ikō Ika for not only changing my chain letter but telling some who were sent to disregard my words. I shall now kill you!**

**Cedric: What are you talking about, Skillet's been missing for a month. We've been updating his chapters for him!**

**Ikō: Actually…**

**Cedric: You sent out a chain letter without Skillet's permission! **

**Ikō: Actually I did it in reviews.**

**Cedric:… What the hell is wrong with you!**

**Ikō: Lots of things**

**Bloody Mary: If your done with your Seinfeld routine I'm going to rip out your eyes and sell them to NaruSaku fans!**

**Cedric: Ok that's just evil, but I'm eviler!**

***Smacks cane on the ground opening up portal to Hell***

**Demons: Are you Ready!**

**Bloody Mary: No There are still so many people I can curse in this world, NOOOOOO!**

***Demons Drag her in and portal shuts***

**Ikō: Well there goes another urban legend.**

**Cedric: In the meantime I think a new rule is in order to keep something stupid like this from ever happening again. Chain letter's are now banned from review or PM's on Skillet or his followers. Anyone who disregards this rule will be blocked. But I wonder what will happen if you do Bloody Mary now that she's in Hell where she belongs**

**Ikō: Let's find out**

***Turns off lights and brings mirror in***

**Bloody Mary**

**Bloody Mary**

**Bloody Mary**

***Mirror shows NaruSasu yaoi**

**Cedric and Ikō:AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!**

** If you ever get a chain letter delete it immediately, and if you are still frightened sleep with a comfort object or religious object on hand. I recently learned this lesson myself. There are people,on the internet who will do these things out of fun, instead of out of fear. If you do decide to send it out of fear be sure to apoligize. Pay no attention to the one who sent it ****and**

**"Keep Moving Forward" -Walt Disney**


	10. A Hurricane's Heart

**Disclaimer:****I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Mostly because Santa didn't ** **give me t****hem.**

**Cedric: Oh stop whining about it you big baby. I didn't get my weapons of voodoo like des****truction. All I got was a ball of lint and a sequel notice on Voodoo's Disciple. We're not even finished with that one yet.**

**Ikō: Hey at least you get presents from him. I only get presents from my family and they're all dead.**

**Skillet: No one needs to be reminded that you don't celebrate Christmas Ikō. Let's just get this chapt****er up before school starts back up.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 9: A Hurricane's Heart**

* * *

AOfter everybody had cleared the arena from the eventful previous match, janitors had come out to sweep up the arena of any remnants of fallen shinobi. Shikamaru looked around at the remaining choices and began eating to his husky teammate.

"Aw man Chouji your in a real drag by this point. Even with people like Naruto and Sasuke out of the running you still got that mummy guy, Lee, and that weirdo from the sand. Just being the same room as him gives me the heebie jeebies."

This wasn't very good for Chouji's morale as he dropped to his knees from the fear of facing any of them. However this was negated quickly with promise of barbecue from Asuma.

Nearby a certain redhaired shinobi was shaking with anxiety

_'After watching that last fight, mother's craving for more blood has gotten even stronger. I don't know how much more I can take without killing everyone here!'_

Kankuro was observing his younger brother's slight change in demeanor, before he noticed a large amount of killing intent directed at Neji. Thinking through the reperssions of approaching the miffed swordsman directly, merely observed with a mocking grin, in hopes to unnerve him.

"Now that the cleaning is finished we can resume with the competition."

'Since nearly everyone had completed their matches their wasn't much of a reaction to this announcement. Except for two green clad men.

"Alright Lee. Are you ready to show everyone in this stadium the power of youth!"

"Yes Gai-sensei, I know that this time I will be picked for sure!"

The board finally stopped on a match that caught everyone's attention.

_Rock Lee vs. Gaara Sabaku_

"Yes, I am next! I am next! I can finally fight!" Lee cheered incredibly excitedly. Naruto showed walked over to his odd looking friend and gave him a bit of advice.

"Lee whatever you do, don't underestimate that Sand ninja. He has a strange power to control sand like a third hand. He might have eaten a Devil Fruit."

The taijutsu specialist merely turned around to Naruto and gave a nice guy pose "That doesn't matter to me. In fact I was hoping he had one as that would mean this would be a much greater challenge!"

He jumped off the railing into the fighting ring where Gaara had already transported himself using his sand. Once Hayate gave the go Lee charged at Gaara with great zeal and attempted to deliver a side kick to his head.

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

The attack was blocked by a layer of sand which flooded over to grab Lee who back-flipped from the incoming jutsu. Those in the audience were surprised to see the sand leaking back into the gourd on his back while Gaara stayed completely still.

"Are you kidding me another Devil Fruit user? How many of these guys are their in this exams. Usually you only see this many in the Grand Line. How troublesome!"

"Not so fast, it's not like Sasuke or Shino where they confirmed they're ability he could just be someone with a strange Kekkei Genkai." Asuma told his student as the match below continued.

For an odd reason only Naruto knew, Shino appeared very uncomfortable while watching the sand, likely due to Gaara's display if brutality in the Forest of Death. Lee charged once again throwing several strong kicks and punches at Gaara though all were blocked by the incoming sand.

Seconds before he could be caught from behind Lee noticed the trail coming in and began slashing at it with a kunai knife he drew. This backfired however as only barely managed to avoid the oncoming massive wave of sand.

He jumped up to avoid the blanket and threw 3 shuriken at Gaara which were swept away by more sand.

"And that's why Gaara can never be hurt. Because the sand will always come to his aid no matter how much chakra he has. Pretty neat eh?"

He failed to notice that why'll he was talking Naruto had fallen asleep and had woken up mere seconds after he finished "I'm sorry what were you saying?"

"LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING BASTARD!"

Gaara looked towards his exhausted opponent and began talking "Is that all you have to offer me? It better not be. Mother wants more blood!"

More sand began sprawling across the floor after Lee. Though he tried jump out of it's way the sand reached up, grabbed him by the leg, and swung him around the room into a wall. Lee once again got up and sent another barrage of attacks at the sand nin.

"I don't get why he's only using taijutsu? With Gaara's style of fighting wouldn't it make more sense to use ninjutsu instead?" Ino thought aloud.

Gai quickly answered her "Well that would be a good idea, but Lee has a chakra disorder which disables him from using any ninjutsu or genjutsu. I have to admit he was pretty hopeless when I first saw him. Completely talentless!"

In the arena Lee kept avoiding the waves of sand Gaara sent at him only to slip over a few hundred grains giving Gaara an opportunity to strike. Though it appeared he had been caught at first Lee had back-flipped a large distance away and landed on the statue of a ram seal in the center.

"Someone who can do neither ninjutsu or genjutsu is very rare in the world of ninja. So he can only rely on taijutsu. But while some might consider this a handicap, but he's turned it into a sure fire way to beat his enemies."

Gai then directed his attention to Lee and yelled "Alright Lee you can take off your weights!"

For some reason Lee looked very confused at what his mentor said "But Gai-sensei you said that was only for when the lives your loved ones were in grave danger!"

"Yes I know, but since your opponent is very strong I'll allow it just this once!"

The spandex wearing genin's expression changed from befuddled to excited in a matter of seconds and lifted up the legs of his pants to reveal training weights. He unlatched them and they fell to the ground with a thunderous crash revealing the must have weighed at least as much as a full nightstand.

"Alright Lee, show him your stuff! _It's funny really as he hasn't even shown the full potential of his power yet…'_

To Gaara's surprise Lee was down there in a nanosecond and shis and barely stopped his strikes. Several of his punches blew the sand away and were inches away from making a connection. He could only watch as his sheild was swept away. Lee flipped into the air before kicking Gaara directly on top of his head.

_'No way. That freak actually managed to hit Gaara!'_

Enraged at being hit for the first time in years Gaara sent another wave as Lee charged at him, only for his opponent to begin making circles around him while taunting him with his location. Before he had time to react Lee had punched him in the jaw sending him flying back.

"Well that was an interesting match, but it looks like the sand village is only taking two to the finals." Naruto concluded. Kankuro wasn't as supportive of the idea however.

"Now wait a minute Cinderface, what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that he's screwed over. If he's never been hit before he probably hasn't built up his physical strength leaving him frail as a butterfly and weak against anything strong or fast enough to make it through the shield."

"Hm, sorry but your a bit wrong their take a look." Kankuro pointed to where Gaara was kneeling after the last hit, and revealed that pieces of hardened stand were falling off his face. Gaara looked and showed that his skin was protected by a layer of sand as well as a insane and bloodthirsty look.

He quick regained his stoic expression as he replaced the sand shield. Naruto however was very surprised at what he just saw "Wait a minute what the hell was that? I know he doesn't have a Devil Fruit but is he like a fabricated soul with a body made of sand or something?"

"Wrong again Cinderface. Normally he uses those clumps of sand as a defense, but in case anything get's through he added a fail safe in the form of a hardened layer of sand over his skin."

"Really, does this guy have any weakpoints?"

Despite the turn of events Lee gave out a smirk and started undoing his bandages. After he was done he started circuits around Gaara again who just stood there motionless. Lee started kicking him up several times into the air. Lee winced from the pain of doing the attack but resumed anyways.

Once Gaara was wrapped the bandages Lee began spinning the two of them around before the finally impacted on the towers floor.

**"Primary Lotus!"**

Lee jumped back while Gaara laid there unconscious and defeated. Hayate approached the body to see if he could still fight only for it to start crumbling into sand moments later

"What?"

The real Gaara rose from the sand laughing like a villain straight from a horror movie and sent several twisting tendrils after Lee. He avoided all of them narrowly but couldn't avoid the tsunami of sand that came next.

"Crap, that last attack must have been a double edged sword. Now he's in too much pain to move."

"Yep your friend is only a plaything for Gaara by this point."

Lee got up again only to be blasted with more sand. He began running and avoiding the other blasts sent at him until he was hit off his feet again. All while Gaara watched with the same sadistic smirk.

"Tell me. How much good do you think running will do? Time to finish this!" Gaara sent out another arm of sand but Lee moved with the same speed as before with a smirk much to the shock of the sand siblings in the audience. Gaara angrily sent out more pillars of sand at Lee who avoided all of them.

_'Man. There's only a handful of people I know with such a zeal for battle, and would smile at a good challenge. And they all sail on the same ship together.'_

_'Alright it's almost time for the eight gates. This is my final chance since my last resort can only be used with the signal from Gai-sensei.'_

Lee then began screaming as a massive amount of gravity began surrounding him as his skin turned red and his eyes went white.

"Naruto, Neji, Sasuke. All of them have made it to the finals and I will not be left behind!** The Third Gate: Seimon! The Fourth Gate: Shōmon!"**

Lee charged at Gaara with even more ferocity then before sending flying at least a yard back as well as completly crumbling the stadium floor. Lee began knocking Gaara back and forth in an attempt to shatter his sand armor. He reeled his fist back and prepared for a final strike.

**"The Fifth Gate: Tomon"**

He hit Gaara once more but grabbed him by the sash on his waist and pulled him back for another punch to the gut. A punch that sent him flying into the ground. Afterwards he recoiled from the damage that had been put on his body and hit the ground below.

Gai looked incredibly happy that Lee won but that was until Shikamaru pointed at Gaara to reveal that he had turned his gourd into sand used it as a cushion for the fall. And was about to deliver the killing blow to the downed Lee.

"Lee he's going to kill you! Quickly, use the gift the power of youth has given you! Use your Devil Fruit power!" Gai yelled to his student while giving a nice guy stance though his expression was a fearful one.

Several in the vicinity's eyes widened from the odd looking man's words, mostly from the fact that there was another Devil Fruit user while Lee was shocked at his mentor for giving him permission to use it.

He looked towards Gai but saw an approving look on his face, but looked towards opponent to see what was about to happen to him.

**"Sand Funeral"**

Gaara clenched his hand expecting Lee to be killed instantly but the leaf genin had vanished. He reappeared in front of him blazing red once again and delivered a hard kick to his chest which his sand shield barely protected. Despite this he still sent rolling from his previous position. Once he shook of the attack he was hit once again with a headhunter and was sent reeling back even further then before.

**"The Sixth Gate: Keimon"**

**"Sped Up Gate Extension"**

Lee did several backflips away and started vibrating violently and his skin turned the color of his jumpsuit and pulled the nearly unconcious Gaara into stance before beating the sand shield off of him until Gaara was pale as a sheet and free of any sand.

The green genin pulled his fist back and began gathering and releasing energy like breathing in and out of lungs. While he was doing this a tiger like aura began forming around him in the air.

Up in the stand Asuma had an incredibly confused look on his face "Wait how is this possible. He's using a gate seven technique on gate six. This doesn't make any sense!"

"Well actually it' sa funny story. In his final year of the academy, an instructor attempted to kill Naruto by placing a Devil Fruit in his lunch, so the demon in the fruit and the kyuubi would tear his body apart in battle. But this Dash-Dash Fruit ended up with Lee instead so know aside from an add on to his already tremendous speed he could now speed up the functions of his internal organs so he could perform a gates functions a gate behind. So now he's the only shinobi alive who could perform the eight gate's functions without death. However performing the Night Guy will leave him to exhausted to move for 48 hours, so its a bit of a double-edged sword."

Once he had finished talking Lee was finally ready to release his final attack on the sand Nin.

**"Daytime Tiger"**

Lee punched Gaara with the tiger like image and sent him flying into the wall. It appeared he had one and finally decided to allow himself a moment to rest. But out from the dust a figure approached with an insane face.

One half of the being looked like Gaara but the other appeared entirely different. It looked a large tan raccoon that had yellow eyes with starlike eyes and blue markings surrounding them. Only a few people in the audience knew what this meant.

_'No, the demon within him's awoken!'_

_'Aw crap!'_

_'So this is what the kazekage's been up to.'_

_'Wait, there's another one out there like me.'_

**_'Yep, he's Shukaku, the One Tailed Racoon. Me and its last jinchuriki had a thing. It didn't end well kid.'_**

"No I won't let you defeat me. He won't get out. Mother wants your blood Baka! Mother wants your blood!"

The malformed Gaara began spewing out sand faster then the wore out Lee could avoid eventually getting pinned against the wall. Once he was stuck, the sand began flooding into his lungs and suffocating him. Eventually he could take no more and fell down oxygen deprived and defeated.

"Winner of the ninth match, Gaara Sabaku."

"No! It's not enough! I'll rip you apart from the inside!" Gaara began lifting his sand covered arm up as to activate the sand but was knocked out by Gai before he could.

"Lord Hokage, I apoligize for this but I needed to save my student."

"No need for apoligies Gai. But I will need to tighten the seal on Gaara." Sarutobi said from his throne. While most of the remaining contestants just looked befuddled at what happened Naruto just looked at Sarutobi with a look that said 'You've got some explaining to do Jiji'. To say the least he was going to have an interesting afternoon.

* * *

**Neji Hyuuga**

**Roronoa Naruto**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Chouji Akimichi**

**Gaara Sabaku**

**Temari Sabaku**

**Kankuro Sabaku**

**Shino Aburame**

**Dosun Kinuta**

**(A/N): Now I know what you're all thinking.**

**"Skillet, why did this chapter take so long!?"**

**Well there's a good reason. High School! One of the hardest places to make it through ever. And with finals coming up I'm really going to need to work my tail feather off. That and most of my energy will go towards finishing off my other story 'Voodoo's Disciple'. This was a pretty short chapter I have to admit, but it's a good precursor of things to come. I hope that the wait wasn't to dreadful and that the next chapter will be worth waiting for. But to foreshadow a bit, from now on I'll be revealing the title of the next chapter, the one before. In this case it will be…**

**Chapter 10: Naruto vs Kisame**

**Now I'll do my rec as normal but this time it won't but of a fanfic it will be of a cartoon. One that's really underrated in my opinion. What is this cartoon you ask?**

**Fillmore! Rec:**

**This is without a doubt one of the best cartoons Disney has ever produced,mes one in my eyes only to Gravity Falls, which I urge all of you to watch as well. Fillmore takes place in a middle school as a reformed delinquent is drawn into the school safety patrol to help hunt down kids who have committed crimes such as mascot theft, mass bathroom defacementment, and even attempted murder of a teacher's pet. This could easily have ended up horrible, but they take the ridiculous parodies of real life crimes and play them so seriously that it's just hard not to laugh, but arguably the best part of the show are the villains. Not only are their motivations for what they do almost always very unique, but their almost always never who you'd expect. My favorite of these would probably be Randall "Flava Sava" Jullian a parody of Hannibal Lector who was sentenced to permanent ISS for tagging nearly every bathroom in the building. I'm not going to spoil much of this guy for you but he actually has a pretty realistic motivation for criminals. The show's fast' exciting, funny, and I urge all of you to watch it.**

**Now if you excuse me I'm up writing this at 1:00 am, and I could use some sleep.**

**. . .**


	11. Naruto vs Kisame

**Disclaimer:UUUGGHHH**

**Cedric: Hey Skillet what's the matter. You look like a dementor just tried to give ****you CPR.**

**Skillet: _…High…School…Final…Exams…Cramming…Evil!_ EEEEEVVVIIIIILLLL!**

**Ikō: _Oh_ get over it Mermaid Man, the first semester is over and you survived. Albeit just ****barely, but still!**

**Cedric: You didn't exist in his last finals. My story did. He's gonna be like this for awhile. Hell, we're lucky he managed to get the new chapter written in his state. **

**Ikō: You do realize most of that was incoherent gibberish he wrote in this vegetable mind set.**

**Cedric: You do realize I have an IQ of 205 and have edited the story twice before while Skillet was out of commission. I can do this!**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor **

**Chapter 10: Naruto vs Kisame**

* * *

The doctors approached Lee's pale and heavily breathing body to examine him. Once they _were_ done they told Gai that Lee had several lung problems and was on the brink of death from the sand. He would have to undergo immediate operation in order survive and if the operation failed he would either die or be unable to work as a shinobi ever again.

Naruto grew even more distraught after seeing another failure like him and Hinata carted off in uncertainty. Now it was only him, Shikamaru, and Chouji left int the exams, who bore the name failure.

_'Hinata-chan, Bushy Brows, don't worry I will succeed. These pompous so-called geniuses will have to answer to the failures who made it into the next round in one month's time.'_

Naruto was broken from his thoughts by an arrogant voice next to him "What a fool. Even in death, he never understood that destiny never smiles on failures. Especially one would tear himself apart trying to defy it. But I guess in that way your a lot alike Naruto."

"Just you wait GirlHair-teme! Cause come finals I'm totally going to rip you to shreds!"

Though he was pissed off at the Girl Hair comment Neji brushed it off and resumed watching the medics cart his teammate off to the emergency room, and his sensei following, weeping on the way.

"Alright now would the last two remaining competitors please step forward so we can *cough cough*, sorry, so we can begin the final match?" Hayate asked.

In response Chouji and Dosun stepped into the arena. The latter for the chance of fighting Sasuke, and the former for the promise of all you can eat barbecue.

"Alright now that we're all here, we can begin the final match."

"Come on Chouji. Show this mummy jerk who's boss."

"You can do it."

"Wow Shikamaru, your just full of surprises today. First you've got a crush and now your cheering for someone. Looks like I'm not the only one who's changed in the past six years!" Naruto teased his friend who only let out a frustrated groan in response.

To get her teammate more battle ready Ino yelled "fatso" to him which pumped him up to the extreme.

"Don't worry Ino, I'll pound this mummified weirdo into the ground and then I'm coming for you!"

"Are you really sure I'm going to be the one pounded into the ground fatso?" Dosun prodded his opponent on more. Choji made a quick hand signs and once he finished he bloated up to almost the size of the room.

**"Expansion Jutsu: Titan Style"**

He pulled his arms and head into his giant body as to protect his ears from Dosun's sound attack and began rolling around at him at incredble speed. Dosun avoided the attack which resulted in Chouji getting stuck in the hole previously made by Kiba, but still kept rotating so Dosun couldn't get a hit in.

In order to attack without getting ripped to shreds by the fastly orbiting sphere, he punched two holes in the ground and rammed his feet into them. Without hesitation, Dosun threw a punch into Chouji's girth.

"Nice try but you can't beat with that sound of yours when my ears are plugged!"

Dosun smirked through his bandages and flicked his gauntlet, activating his attack. Chouji screamed in pain as he popped back into his giant form while knocked out cold by the vibrations.

"Even with your ears plugged my sound attack will leave you out of it. Since the human body is mostly made up of water that leaves you vulnrable to my attacks even with your ears covered."

Once he was done gloating he realized Chouji was falling backwards from fainting. Dosun attempted to move out of the giant's way but remembered that his feet were stuck in the holes he had made. With no way to escape, he could only scream as Chouji fell and crushed him.

When the smoke from the impact and reversion cleared it revealed, a shrunken and asleep Chouji, and a crushed and dead Dosun.

"Due to the fact that one is unable to battle and one has been killed, neither will advance to the final round of the Chunin Exams. The tenth and final match of the preliminaries is a draw. Would the able-bodied winners of their matches please come down so we can explain how things are going to work."

In response to his request Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Temari, Kankuro, Shino, and a recently resealed Gaara came down from the stands to hear his words, while the Jonnin and Ino stayed behind.

"Lord Hokage, do you want elaborate?"

"Of course Hayate" The old veteran answered before he began his explanation. "In the final rounds of the exams you will each put your battle skills to the test in front of an audience of nobles from this sea and others, as well as the Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Momonga. They will decide by ballot who they think should be chunin after the exams have been completed. You will have exactly one month from today to train your bodies and jutsu. That and we'll need to send out notices. Before you were battling an enemy with unknown abilities such as inhuman strength, demonic chakra, and even a few Devil Fruit powers. So to make the finals fair, you'll have a month to develop strategy and learn a few new tricks, since it's likely everyone here knows your basis of all your attacks. Now everyone will need to take a number from the box Anko is holding."

Anko walked up to everyone, giving them a chance to take a piece of paper until it was completely empty. Once asked their number they replied to which Sarutobi wrote something down on a dry erase board he was holding.

"The final exam's showcase will be in a tournament bracket. The numbers you have randomly picked will decide who you face in the finals." Sarutobi said.

_'Lets see, out of the remaining people I would want to fight Gaara, GirlHair-teme, or Sasuke-teme. The other one's from the sand I just don't care about, and going up against someone as smart as Shikamaru or Shino would definetly be bad.'_

"I will now reveal your first opponents in the exams." He turned the dry erase board he was holding around to reveal the matches.

_Roronoa Naruto vs. Neji Hyuuga _

_Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara Sabaku_

_Kankuro Sabaku vs. Shino Aburame_

_Shikamaru Nara vs. Temari Sabaku_

_'This is exactly what I was hoping for. Right of the bat with GirlHair-teme. Things couldn't be any better!'_

"Any questions?"

"Wait if their's only one winner wouldn't that mean there would only be one chunin?" Shikamaru asked.

"Quite the contrary actually. While the winner automatically becomes chunin there will be a ballot among those in the audience afterwards to decide who becomes chunin. There'so even a possibility ALL of you could become chunin. The further you make it in, the more chances you have at showing your skills to the judges. Does that answer your question?

"Yeah sure." The Nara replied aloofly.

"Now there will be a few rules added on that weren't there before.

Rule #1: No spying on the other contestants, especially while they are training

Rule #2: As opposed to the preliminaries, weapons such as katana are allowed

Rule #3: In the event a contestant is killed before or during the exams they will be disqualified

Rule #4: The use of bloodlines is permitted and encouraged. Killing the user of the bloodline in question will result in execution, if the party is from Konoha. Killing anyone else is fine.

These rules were written and signed by _our wise and powerful Civillian Council." _Sarutobi said as he gritted his teeth together in the last part.

"We will now adjourn. Congratulations on making it this far and we'll see you all in the Land of Fire National Arena in one month's time. Now goodbye." Sarutobi and the rest of the higher ranking ninja then shushined out of the room leaving the rest of the examines to either leave or speak amongst themselves.

After about three minutes only three remained, Naruto and Neji. With a confident look Neji turned to his future opponent and began trying to sway him from competing "Of course, fate pairs me up against another failure I should have no problem defeating. A word of warning Roronoa, don't show up to the stadium, or else I'll make sure you leave in a hearse. You've only made it this far due to luck, and just like Hinata and Lee you don't deserve to be in the exams with geniuses like me and Sasuke. Needless to say, I'll have to kill the Nara under the same terms if I get him after I send you to hell. Tata!"

Neji shushined away to leave Naruto in his own thoughts, hoping he had scared away from the fight. However what he had just had done the opposite, making Naruto even more pissed off at the arrogant Hyuuga.

But at the moment, the swordsman had bigger fish to fry. He needed to talk to a certain old man about what he saw in Lee's match. There were more than one jinchuriki and he needed to know just what was going with them.

* * *

In the Capitol building of Konoha, Sarutobi was in office taking care of the arch enemy of any political leader in the world. Paper work! At least he was until Naruto went crashing into his office by slicing down the door, and walking through nonchalantly,much to the shock of the Hokage's workers in the other room.

"Oh hello Naruto. I was expecting you here. Come, sit down have a cup of sake." Sarutobi said monotonously despite the oddity that just occurred .

Naruto approached the table and sat down while his surrogate grandfather poured the sake into the cup signaling Naruto to take a sip. After a few drinks he began asking questions.

"Alright Jiji, we both know why I'm here. So tell me what is it with other jinchuriki. How many are there in the world today and what are their conditions. And finally, and this is the most important one, HOW COME YOU NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

The old shinobi brought his hands up defensively and said "No need to shout gaki, just let me talk and I'll explain everything."

Naruto calmed down quickly after Sarutobi's reply. This gave him enough time to clear his throat and begin his explanation.

"Despite their being more than one, the jinchuriki are very rare, being confined to only this large island in the South Blue. Of the nine jinchuriki there are Gaara Sabaku of the One Tailed Racoon, Yugito Nii of the Two Tailed Cat, Yagura of the Three Tailed Turtle, Roshi of the Four Tailed Monkey, Han of the Five Tailed Sheep Utakata of the Six Tailed Slug, Fü of the Seven Tailed Beetle, Killer Bee of the Eight Tailed Steer, and of there's you. Each of these shinobi are scattered across the hidden villages. For the most part they aren't treated very well in their own villages since when the beast gets out it causes massive havoc. Usually they either become a missing-nin like you did or go completely insane like Gaara. But some villages like Kumo don't mind the demons inside them and even honor them as ninja."

"Yes well that still doesn't explain why you didn't tell me about this all years ago." Naruto retaliated.

"I was planning to tell you once you turned 16, but at that time you were somewhere in the Grand Line. The reason I didn't tell you to begin with is because of a criminal syndicate dedicated to capturing and killing all nine hosts called Akatsuki. They weren't considered a threat until very recently when to of their members called Scorpion and Artist assassinated the Mizukage Yagura. I worried that telling you would cause you to give up your goals out of fear of death."

Naruto gave the third an annoyed look and said "Do you really think I'd do that? I may not be the smartest guy but if I die fighting for my goal I couldn't give a shit!"

"Yes, I realize that it was very foolish to think that way of you. I hope you can forgive me in time. But you should probably be going. I need to take care of that Ibiki buisness." Hiruzen said as he sat at his desk and motioned to the door.

When Ibiki's name was brought up he had realized that the interrogator hadn't been present at the closing ceremony for the preliminaries. And the way Sarutobi had mentioned him was very concerning.

The Sandaime had sensed this told him " I know what your thinking. I'm afraid Ibiki was murdered earlier this afternoon. And judging from the substance we gathered during the autopsy, there's only one person who could have done the deed…Sasuke!"

Naruto felt another surge of rage sear through him at the tragic news, and yelled "Then what are we just standing around here for? We should be arresting the teme for murder after what just happened!"

"Yes but at the moment there's nothing we can do. The civilian council would aquit him of the murder and accuse someone else, likely you. So for now I'm ruling the death as accidental. But don't worry, one of these days that brat will screw up so bad not even the council will be able to shield him from justice."

Naruto turned towards the door with a slightly dissapointed look on his face and said "Alright, I understand. He won't get away with this though, for whatever reason he did it for. And one more thing, who was the jinchuriki before me?"

"Oh him? The jinchuriki before you was a man named Ichigo Hatake. But he disappeared during the Kyuubi attack. I wouldn't be worrying about that though, after all you need to visit your new girlfriend in the hospital!"

His faced turned hot with both anger and embarrassment from his surrogate grandfather's teasing of his relationship with Hinata. He turned around and yelled "Shut up old man!" before running out the door red as a beet.

The aged ninja chuckled at Naruto's defensive reaction before turning to his office window and looking outside _'Tobimara-sensei, I'm sorry I couldn't be a worthy successor to you. I'd retire but then those council bastards would put the Uchiha child in my place, and that would only make things worse. I hope that the true bearers of the Will of Fire will ignite the flames of this village's honor once again.'_

* * *

It took about five minutes for Naruto to get to the nearby hospital where all those who lost their matches that made it out alive were being kept to heal. He hadn't heard much about most of their conditions but was still worried about the one's whose life hung in the balance when he last saw them such as Hinata or Lee.

He walked into the room to see a familiar looking nurse at the receptionist she was one of the many nurse's that tried to have him killed when he was admitted into the hospital after being attacked by a drunk mob.

But unlike the other nurses who were killed for breaking the Sandaime's Law, she attempted his life right around the time the council took almost complete control over the government so she got off scot free.

Seeing as there was no other way to get into the ward he decided to just go up to her. She gave him a hateful glare and said "Sorry Demon, but you get no admittance into this hospital. Visiting hours are over, and besides you might taint the patients."

Ignoring the fact that visiting hours weren't over for another hour he gave the spiteful lady a glare of his own before slicing the visiting hours sign in half "Oh would you look at that the visiting hours are gone. That must mean I can go in!"

While the nurse was frozen from shock, Naruto headed into the hallway. He looked around the doors to see if he could find the one with Hinata's name. He kept walking down the passage without looking and ran right into a familiar face.

"Hayate, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked very confused.

"Oh, my wife had my child today so to pass the time while she's resting I'm visiting everyone who failed the exams, that actually survived. So far Chouji and Tenten are the only one's who've actually regained consciousness. Hinata's condition is stable if your wondering. I assume you were going to visit her?"

"Yes, I was. And I'm going to right now, see you later Hayate." Naruto said as he was directed to Hinata's room by the sickly jonnin.

He walked into and felt his heart leap at Hinata's sleeping form. Ever since he left the village to pursue his goals as a swordsman he never really had much of an romance. Mostly stemming from the fact that he was always either training or bounty hunting. And the fact that he became directly affiliated with some of the worlds most wanted pirates didn't really help with luck with women.

But Hinata was the only girl beside Ayame who actually treated him with any respect. He felt close to her, unlike almost anyone else "God damnit, I better not be turning into that stupid cook, otherwise I'll run to the New World just to beat the shit out of him!"

"So your here dobe? Good I want you see this?" Naruto was broken from his thoughts by a voice he'd hoped not to hear for another month. Sasuke was standing in the door with the same smug grin on his face.

"What the hell are you doing here Sasuke-teme? I thought you were off on your little murdering spree with your boyfriend Orochimaru. I know all about those gold samples on Ibiki's corpse!" The swordsman retorted.

"So that toothless worm of a Hokage told you? Not like it matters, the Civillian Council will come pin the evidence on you if he even tries to accuse me. But with Neji going to kill your worthless ass in the exam you'll be out of my hair and I'll be promoted and receive that special sword of yours! Then I'll take the chair from the old fart and make this town of fools my own my playground for Uchiha. And your bitch is going to help me with that goal!" Sasuke said as he pointed to Hinata.

In response to his threat Naruto immediately withdrew a sword from it's sheath and swung straight for Sasuke's arm. Before it could hit Sasuke turned his arm into the knife he used to kill Ibiki. Both strongly held their positions with an extremely large amount of Ki exploding out of them, as they locked eyes like two beasts battling for supremacy.

But something burning hit Naruto in the back and stuck to it. He recoiled from the pain giving Sasuke an opening to stab him with his other arm. Despite this Naruto still stood in incredble pain. The clone that had attacked him walked around him haughtily and exploded.

When Naruto looked up he saw that a flaming red curse mark was spreading like a disease across Sasuke's face "That's why I'm stronger than you dobe. Before we were equals! But thanks to Orochimaru's gifts I'm now the strongest genin alive!"

Sasuke was shocked when Naruto just started laughing "Really Sasuke-teme? Your the strongest. What a load of horseshit, the only reason your strong is cause you had everything handed to you on a silver platter! Your jutsu, your Sharingan, your Devil Fruit, and now that glorified hickey! You were given everything so you have no idea of how hard life can really be. All you do is bitch about your brother and your family of thieves, but everyone loves despite the fact your literally the worst person I've ever met. Where as there are people who had to work hard for what they got Shikamaru, Shino, and all had to work our asses off to get to the finals and here we are! Face it Sasuke-teme your not the strongest genin alive. Your the biggest wimp alive!"

Sasuke was enraged to the point that his Sharingan had turned on involuntarily by this point in Naruto's insult and lunged at him with both his fists tirned golden and spiked. Naruto withdrew Kurama to prepare for the oncoming brawl but right before he could make impact with the sword, Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks.

Both were equally confused until an aloof voice came from the doorway "Sorry Uchiha but letting you and Naruto fight now would be incredibly troublesome."

There in the doorway stood Shikamaru and Ino looking pissed off as ever, though this was more notable on Ino's side "If you lay one more hand on either one of these two I'll flatten you into the ground Uchiha!"

"Why you stupid little whore! Make your loser of a teammate at once. I am an Uchiha so I shall do whatever I want to the Hyuga bitch and neither you or the dobe can stop me!"

His demanding only pissed of the blonde kunoichi even further to the point she lunged at Sasuke and slammed her fist into the top of his head sending his face bloody face directly into the tile below, while Naruto just looked on in amazed shock.

"Di-did you just nail that bastard? I have to say… I'm pretty impressed!"

Ino got and dusted herself before answering the injured swordsman "Well Naruto, if I'm gonna be less like Sakura and more of a respectable kunoichi, I'll need to get over my obsession with this jerk!"

"That's great and all, but the next step in that is to not beat your teammates senseless for no good reason." Naruto told her slightly amused while pointing towards Shikamaru's unconcious and bruised body.

Apparently since Shikamaru still had his shadow linked to Sasuke when he was assaulted by Ino, so he took brunt of the attack as well. Once she saw the unintentional damage done to her teammate she turned around and grabbed him by the collar and began shaking him violently.

"Holy Crap, Shikamaru I'm so sorry, come on you can get up! Wake up buddy, one look at my gorgeous face and you'll be ok for sure!"

**"Superiority Hammer"**

She was silenced when Sasuke his golden fist into her back, using the opprutunity when she was focusing on Shikamaru to strike. It only took her a few seconds to collapse from the pain.

"That's what you get for defying my you hussy! Now I'm going to finish all of you!"

Shikamaru awakened to see that Sasuke had lifted him of the ground and was about to kill him with his heated knife "Time to die Nara. Don't worry after you die, Naruto will in the caring hands of the World Government, after he takes the blame for you and Yamanaka's murder!"

Before he could pierce his heart Sasuke felt another more demonic presence pressed up against his neck "You make one more move and you'll be missing a few pieces Sasuke-teme. And don't try using your logia powers to avoid it either. It's laced with Armor Haki so you can't do a thing to avoid it."

"You can't touch me dobe. Remember the rules written by the council? If you kill a member of a clan with a Kekkei Genkai you'll be executed! Just sit back and wait for when I get to you and that sword!" Sasuke tried to prevent his pseudo-teammate from carrying out the threat.

"Seems you've forgotten the rules yourself bastard! Though you seem to think your clan is the only one in the world, Shikamaru and Ino also count as clan members with bloodlines so if you touch them, I have every right to execute you as a shinobi of Konoha."

Sasuke tried to come up with a counter-argument but realized that he was correct. If he killed either of them Naruto could do the same to him without suffering consequences. knowing there was no way he could win in this scenario he stormed out the door in rage.

"Sorry you had to get mixed up in that you two." Naruto apoligized immediately to the two.

"It's ok Naruto we both know a few healing jutsu. I took a class on it before the Academy and Shikamaru can just spread the shadows across his body to make them act as makeshift ice pads and stitches. Now we might want to get that gold Sasuke shot at you off your back."

Naruto took off his jacket in response giving Ino a way to flake the gold off with her healing chakra. After she got enough of it off she began to get a small nosebleed from seeing Naruto's back.

"Hey Ino stop ogling Naruto the gold is all gone, he should be fine for now. Come on, we need to go visit Chouji in his room." Ino stopped instantly at her teammates teasing.

Incredibly embarrassed she stood up and retorted "Like your much to talk about me staring at Naruto, it's not like I've got a crush on him or anything. Not like you and Temari!"

"Now wait just a minute. Just because I decided to be nice and help her heckle Sakura doesn't mean I like her or anything!" Shikamaru defended himself.

"Oh yeah then explain why blushed when she thanked you for getting Sakura in that Jutsu of yours!"

"Why don't you explain while you were blushing while healing Naruto's back!"

_'You know in hindsight I'm so glad I'm here right now' _Naruto thought to himself as he watched the argument.

"Excuse me but you'll have to leave. Visiting hours are over and out patients will need rest." A doctor in the doorway said before walking off. They stopped the fight and complied leaving the hospital. Once they were outside Naruto asked Shikamaru "So What happened to everyone else? I didn't have time to visit bushy brows."

"Sakura got a concussion from that weapons bag Kankuro threw at her, Tenten just needed a few stiches so she'll be out soon, the sound girl I fought got after a couple of hours, Kiba needed casts, burns, and stiches after what you did to him, but that's nothing compared to him after what his mother did to him after she figured out about those Energy Steroids he had. He's gonna be out of it for a long while. You already know Hinata is doing and Lee's lung surgery is still going on, but we should learn about the results by tomorrow. Chouji's just a bit sick from that guy's sound vibration. Good luck with your training, cause against that curse mark we're gonna need a lot of it."

* * *

Once Shikamaru and Ino had left, Naruto began his own way home. He clutched hard to the hilt of his sword as he walked through the streets of Konoha, as some drunk villager might attack him in a rage.

About halfway through he saw a pair of figures on the roof one of the buildings. He brushed it off as just mirages of fatigue but was stopped in his tracks when they reappeared on the awning in front of him. Both of the men wore large black cloaks with red clouds painted in several areas and on their heads they wore traditional straw fishermen hats with strips of paper hanging off the edge to cover their faces.

The taller one with a large sword on his back spoke "Roronoa Naruto, I presume. Oh what does it matter I'm going to kill you anyways!"

Then the large figure swung his large sword at Naruto who blocked in a nick of time with two of his swords and struck with own attack.

**"Nigiri"**

Before he could be cut the attacker did a backflip onto another nearby awning "Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. You guys are known throughout this continent and have fairly high bounties on your heads. So I have to ask, what are two Missing-Nin doing in a place where the could easily be slaughtered by Hunter-Nin?"

"The answer is simple Naruto. We are now part of the organization working for the betterment of mankind known as the Akatsuki. And for this organization we have to capture you. And by the way we go by codenamed now, so please call us by those. I am Genocide." Itachi said as he took of his cover.

"And I am Brother named for the one your friend Zoro helped get turned in 2 years ago!" Kisame said.

"Wait are you talking about Arlong? He had a brother!?" a befuddled Naruto realized.

"And a sister but that's besides the point. He took my brother away from me, so the least I could do is return the favor!"

Kisame lunged at Naruto with an upward chop which was dodged and countered with a sweep to the legs, which was blocked by Kisame's Samehada. The tear in the in the bandages revealed several sets of blue spines which stretched out to impale Naruto, and could only barely be blocked.

Naruto retreated away from the spines to run up a wall and attack from above and spinning his blades into a ball.

**"Santoryu: Hyo Kin Dama"**

Kisame blocked until the momentum from the attack slowed down and attacked with a jab from Samehada to his chest. Naruto hit the ground in pain and looked at his ribs to see that his skin had been torn in several places.

"Normal swords only cut. But mine can shave you clean of your skin in a matter of seconds! And that's not all it can do!" Kisame said as he swung his sword down onto a sword Naruto had dropped. Chewing sounds could be heard as well as grinding metal, and when the sword lifted the blade was gone and only a hilt remained.

"How are you gonna fight now without out your precious three sword style?"

**"Nitoryu Lao: Rashomon"**

The fishman got his answer in the form of a two large cuts across his chest one of which burned incredibly painfully, causing the great white to howl in agony.

"Lesson One of entering the fox's den: Never Underestimate the man who'll be the worlds greatest!" Naruto said as the fishman collapsed.

Itachi just watched patiently as if waiting for some thing to happen. This confused Naruto as he figured the Uchiha would attack him the moment he killed his partner but saw why when the fallen Kisame turned to the Samehada and vice versa.

Kisame attacked but Naruto blocked sticking one of his swords into hid. Seeing as Naruto wasn't going to move on his own Kisame had the spines his swords extend to impale Naruto forcing him to move out of the way. Naruto looked up to see the sword eat his blade until the hilt dropped with a clank.

"And then there was one." Kisame taunted his opponent as he was left in a very bad position.

_**'Kid what are you doing? Your getting your ass kicked out there! Grow some balls cause I don't wanna get eaten by that psycho.'**_

_'Can it, dumbass I'm trying the hardest I can. Wait you just gave me an idea!_

**_'Umm… What are you going to do?'_**

"Alright fishman, you win. Take my sword so you can go suck the life out of me." Naruto said as he held out Kurama.

"What?!"

_'What?'_

**_'WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?!WHA-'_**

* * *

**(A/N): **

**Ikō: "WWWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTT?!"**

* * *

"You heard me, just take it I'm done fighting." Naruto said nonchalantly.

Kisame smirked and said "Well aren't you a smart kid. If anything this gives me another snack!"

He took Kurama from Naruto by the blade and began swallowing it whole. Once it was down. He and Itachi walked away expecting Naruto to follow, only for him to say one thing.

"Kurama, detonate."

As soon as he said that the fishman burst into flames, screaming in even more agony then before. Itachi was shocked and bewildered at what just happened before he saw Naruto's look of victory.

The burnt fishman's screams finally stopped and he collapsed to the ground while spitting up Kuruma. Naruto dragged his sword out of his jaws, and began staring down Itachi before started turning red around him and he was brought to his knees by a splitting headache.

"So you've managed to defeat two of our best swordsman. The rumors were true, you are powerful. But while you are strong enough to beat Sasuke you aren't good enough to beat me. He is by far the weakest of the our clans remainder."

_'Shit, this guy's really good. Damn it my head!'_

Just as Itachi apped to finish the job an odd looking man jumped in between them and shattering the ground under him. He had blazing red hair, a curly mustache, pointed sunglasses, and a sparkly purple tuxedo.

The man spoke in an abnormal way "You shall not pass, Genocide. You have no power in this part of Oz!"

Itachi attempted to sock the stranger in the face, but his fist was caught and he was flipped over, with a pocket knife pressed up against his chest "Begone evildoer! And take your fallen comrade with you!"

Seeing there was no way he could win, Itachi picked up Kisame and shusnined away. Naruto asked the weird newcomer "Um who the hell are you?"

"I am the terror that flaps in the night, I am the pencil that breaks everytime you try to use it. I am the world renowned fighter of the Kirigakure, one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, Maglako!"

"Your world renowned? This is literally the first time I've ever heard of you in my entire life!" Naruto said slightly annoyed at the man's eccentricity.

"Cinderface, you are very powerful in your own regard, but you will need to be stronger if you wish to complete your goals, especially with two out of three of your swords left destroyed by your fight with the fishman, Brother. If you wish the get stronger come by Training Ground 46 tomorrow morning. I will have two new swords and new techniques for you."

Maglako then vanished as quickly as he had come leaving Naruto to ponder the offer, before coming to a conclusion "If I have to face more people like Gaara or Itachi, training with this freak might be my best option…Kurama you smell terrible."

_**'…Gaki…We wil NEVER speak of this night EVER AGAIN!'**_

* * *

**(A/N): Hallelujah thank the lord that this semester is over! With all my finals over till June I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, so now I can (hopefully) write a bit more often. On a different note in two on the I'll have been on the site for an entire year! That would be a big milestone if it weren't for the fact that this story has the biggest audience out of my four. Probably because I REALLY sucked at the beginning, which is why after this arc is over I'll likely rewrite Voodoo's Disciple. Don't tell Cedric about that though…**

**But enough about my personal life. It's time for…**

**Skillet's Fanfiction Rec's:**

**Today's rec will be...**

**The Losers (Rewrite):**

**This could very well be one of my favorite stories on the site, only under 2 others. The basic plot is that in the Academy Kiba decides not to be jackass to Naruto and offer him a friendship which later extends ovet to the other dead lasts Shikamaru and Chouji. The four then use combined skills to rock the class and face challenges on their own teams. This is one of those stories where I can very little wrong with. The characters work off each other rather well without ridding them to much of their original personalities. The plot is easily one of the most original I've seen in awhile. This is an utter masterpiece of a story and I urge all of you to check it out. Yes there was an original version of it, but that's a dead fic now. Shame cause that was really good too.**

**And by the way, Maglako is voiced by Christopher Walken for those wondering.**

**_Next Chapter: New Swords and a Strange Town_ **


	12. New Swords and a Strange Town

**Disclaimer:****I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then Maglako would STOP DANCING IN MY FRICKIN TOILET!**

**Maglako: What you've never heard of flush dancing?**

**Skillet: WOULD YOU STOP REFERENCING STUFF ALREADY!**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 11: New Swords and a Strange Town**

* * *

The sun was rising on Training Ground 46 where Naruto walked into with his single sword armed at his side. It had 6 years since he actually had to wait for training due to his and Zoro's nomadic camping style. But more thoughts of his old training brought something into his mind.

_'Kakashi was acting really weird when we fought. His fighting style had way to many holes in it for when I fought him during that bell test, and he at least tried to be subtle with his favoritsm! Something's not right here, and I have a really bad feeling the Council might have something to do with it…"_

The blonde swordsman was broken from his thoughts when he saw Maglako running towards him with a duffel bag. Or rather hopping towards him "Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop! I am the Million Dollar Baby!"

The eccentric man wasn't looking were he was going and face-planted into a nearby tree, causing a small nosebleed "Um, are you ok?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be ok? I am the Genie of the lamp!" Maglako made a grand gesture by getting down to his knees and pumping his fists to the sky.

"That's nice Maglako-sensei. Now are going to started soon or…?"

"Tututut young one, "Maglako-sensei" is much to simple for a man of my grandeur. From this moment on you shall refer to me as Maglako, The Magnificent, Short in Stature, Tall in Power, Narrow of Purpose and Wide of Vision! And besides Ralphie, why would you want a sword? You'll shoot your eye out!" Maglako scolded him much to his annoyance.

"Well, if he can somehow hear me that squid bastard is lucky. He's not the most annoying swordsman I've ever met anymore." Naruto said to himself.

The redhead then unzipped the duffel bag revealing a multitude of swords falling from the bag "Like my selection Cinderface-kun? I have a wide multitude of swords for you to chose from, to replace the one's you lost against Brother last night."

"N-nno way! How did you afford all of these? A good majority of these are meito grade and even a few Wazomono, Ryo Wazomono, and Saijo O Wazomono!" Naruto asked him in awe at the large and beautiful collection in front of him.

"Oh I have my methods." Maglako answered proudly while pushing up his sunglasses. But moments later he winced nervously when he heard an angered voice from behind.

"There you are you thief!" Tenten yelled while pointing at Maglako who then proceeded to hide behind a nearby tree.

"Please, don't come in I'm naked" He tried to hide by disguising his voice in falsetto. This didn't fool Tenten for a second as she approached the tree and grabbed the man by the collar of his tux, shaking him violently.

"You bastard! You think you can steal all these valuable swords from my father's shop and get away with it?! I outta turn you into the marines for this!" Tenten said as she shook the terrified man.

"Sorry Tenten, but I need him for training, so taking turning him to the marines would be a bit of a hinderance especially since I can't bail him out." Naruto got between the two of them.

"Oh hi Naruto. Sorry about the Chunin Exams, especially after you made it so far. Such a shame!" Tenten said with pity towards him. This greatly irratated the swordsman which he made very clear.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well it's fairly obvious your going to lose to Neji-kun, I mean come on, he's a genius. You may have had a bit of dumb luck against opponents like Kiba or that guy from Ame', but you can't fight fate. You think for someone who fought the World Government you'd know that. Your a failure and he's a genius, it's just the natural order of things! If you weren't planning on quitting you should, for your own safety."

Despite trying to convince him to stay out of the fight, her words only pressed the stubborn man on even more than he already was "Don't bother trying to sway me from fighting Girl Hair-teme, I fully intend on getting stronger and beatings his ass into the ground!"

Tenten let out a exasperated groan of annoyence and said "Well if your not going to listen the least I could do is find you some new swords, so you can at least live."

Naruto looked through the pile of swords to look for two that he thought would be good in battle, while Tenten resumed tearing apart Maglako. Eventually after a minute or two of digging through the stack he found a sword with a crimson sheath and a small circular cross shaped tsuba. He took of the sheath to reveal a silver colored blade with a orange tinted hamon.

Once Tenten turned around to see Naruto holding the sword she immediately panicked and snatched the sword from his hands "Don't touch that you fool! What do you have a death wish or something!"

"What, what's wrong with it? I thought you said we could have any sword we wanted? Maglako asked the bun-haired girl.

Naruto pointed to the sword she was holding and explained "Take a closer look, the swords cursed."

Once prompted Maglako took a closer look at the daito in question and screamed when he realized it's type "AAAHHH THE SHODAI KITETSU!"

The teacher fell back and scooted away from the cursed sword "Cinderface-kun whatever you do don't take that sword! All three kitetsu blades have been cursed to where owning one can get you killed gruesomely. If you take one your a deadman!"

Naruto turned to the terrified man and gave a challenged smirk "Oh is that so?"

He walked over to Tenten and took the sword from her, proceeding to unsheathing it and held it up "Where's the price tag on this thing? I'll take it!"

What he had decided had greatly shocked both Tenten and Maglako, the former of whom approached Naruto to try and sway him "Naruto I can't let you buy that sword. Just letting you go through with fighting Neji is bad enough, but if you took it I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. It would be death to take that sword!"

"Well let's find out which one's stronger the sword's curse, or my good luck?" Naruto then tossed the sword up into the air in a way that it spun around, and held his arm out under it as to dare the blade to cut it off.

"Naruto don't!"

"You moron! You're gonna chop your own arm off doing that! Move your arm out of the way, quickly!"

Naruto closed his eyes as the sword came closer, but to the surprise of both bystanders the sword circled around his arm and stuck itself into the ground below. The display of chance brought Tenten to her knees with anxiety.

"Zoro-oniisan taught me that trick! Now about the pricing on the sword?"

Tenten stood up after regaining awareness and ran to the pile swords and began digging through it as if looking for something specific. Eventually she found a blue sheathed sword with a red hilt, and triangular tsuba.

She ran over to Naruto and presented the sword "This is one of the Saijo O Wazomono swords, the Yamakawa O. It's by far the best sword we have in our shop, and I would like you to have it."

He took the sword from Tenten's hand and unsheathed it to reveal the blade. It was a very dark gray color that had a hamon that changed colors from blue, to violet, to red, everytime it was tilted.

"Sorry but I'm afraid I can't afford a sword like this."

"Take it, it's free of charge! Same thing for the Shodai Kitetsu. You're a true swordsman and you deserve it more than anyone else I know!" Tenten said proudly.

"Really I can have both of these swords for free?" Naruto asked surprised at her decision.

"Of course you can Naruto-kun, because this thieving bastard right here is paying for all of them!" Tenten pointed to shocked Maglako who had completly forgotten about the theft he had committed by this point,

The man had quickly regained his cool and said "Alright, it's no problem little lady. Cool guys like me are loaded so we can throw money around like we throw balls around The Sandlot. So tell me, how much does it cost?"

"Well, adding the price of both swords together, plus the 50,000 beri fine for robbing our store, that would be about 162,000,000 beris."

* * *

Team 10 was currently eating at the Yakiniku Barbecue, in celebration of Chouji getting out of the hospital and Shikamaru making it to the finals.

"Who would have thought, the two lowest ranking people in the Academy actually making it to the finals of one of the biggest biannual events in the world!" Ino mused aloud to herself.

"Hey at least one of us is happy. I can't believe I have to fight a girl again! What a drag."

"Yeah Right Shikamaru, I'm pretty sure you just wanna kiss her instead of fight her!" Ino teased her teammate in response to his complaining, to which his his face turned from both embarrassment and anger.

Taking notice of this Asuma decided to join in on teasing his student about his crush "Ahh, young love! I remember when I first fell in love with a girl."

"Was that girl Kurenai-sensei, Asuma-sensei?"

Asuma responded by spitting out and coughing on his tea, while as red as Shikamaru "Like student, like teacher I guess! …Ummm what's wrong with Chouji?"

Once Ino took notice of it, Shikamaru looked at his friend to see that he seemed very depressed and hadn't even touched his food which was very unsusual. Luckily Asuma explained.

"He's probably depressed about accidentaly killing Dosun back there. Even on accident the first kill is always the hardest to get past." After he was done Ino saw a familiar face coming nearby, which had a large grin on their face.

"Hey Tenten! What are you so happy about?"

"I just made one of the biggest sales ever to Naruto! Well technically I got all the money from some weirdo that was teaching him that stole from my father's shop, but it was still a pretty big load!"

"Really? I'm suprised you're helping him, after all he's fighting against your teammate. One you've repeatedly said had no weakness!" Ino said shocked at Tenten's attitude towards Naruto.

"I originally thought that Neji-kun was going to completly massacre Naruto in the ring in a month, and that all the rumors about him and Zoro were complete bull, and that he just did something stupid to piss of the World Governement to get his bounty. But now I know that the rumors are completely true, and that he's going to give Neji-kun some real trouble a month from now, if not beat him! I wouldn't expect anything less from a student of Zoro!" She said proudly and with a small blush when she brought up Zoro, which didn't go unnoticed by Ino.

"Hm, looks like Tsunade's not the only one you look up to Tenten! Someone got a little crush on Naruto's big bro?" Ino teased much to the chagrin of the bun haired kunoichi.

"Run while you still can Tenten-san."

"Its not anything like that! I just admire his skills as a swordsman is all!" Tenten tried to defend herself despite how she was very red.

Asuma then spoke out on his own which didn't help her case "Oh yeah I forgot about that! Your father told me that you have an enlarged poster of him in your bedroom next to your one of the three sanin!"

Once he said this both Shikamaru and Ino started busting their guts laughing at the situation, even Chouji laughed a bit despite his depressed state. Asuma bashfully put his head behind his back and said "Oh sorry, I guess I wasn't supposed to say that."

Tenten slammed her head against the table and thought

_'Damn it Otou-san…'_

* * *

Back at Training Ground 46, Naruto was admiring the quality of his new swords. He enjoyed the strength of the sheath as well as the finish and sharpness of the hamon. The swords he had recieved were truly a work of art.

He looked over at his soon to be teacher to see that he was still moping over the large sum of money he had lost to Tenten "Oi, Maglako-sensei ate we gonna start training soon or am I gonna have to get an ambulance to see if you're still alive?"

"_Shut the hell up gaki, how am I supposed to buy my dinner in this place now?"_

"I don't know, maybe you can dine and dash or something!" Naruto joked with the depressed man.

'Maglako stood up with a smile on his face and exclaimed "Great idea! I'll just do that for as long as I stay here!"

"I WAS BEING SARCASTIC DAMNIT!"

"Now then Cinderface-kun, let's start your training. Tell me has Zoro-kun ever taught you how to turn your slashes projectile?" Maglako asked regaining his cool exterior.

Naruto quickly answered "No not really, he usually just taught me the contact stuff. I saw him use those at the Enies Lobby but since I nearly got killed by that Ash-Ash Fruit guy and losing to him again I figured I wasn't ready for it yet so I never asked him."

"Well, since you have gotten levels stronger in the two years since you've last met, I will be taking care of the second phase of your training since Zoro's off in the New World." Maglako explained.

"Wait how do you know Zoro-niisan?" The blonde swordsman asked curiously.

"Simple young one, I was one of the observers of his training with Mihawk, so I know all his tricks and how the work." Maglako explained.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's get started." Naruto said with a smirk. Maglako returned it and withdrew a long rapier from the back of his tuxedo.

"I agree, after all knowing is half the battle!"

Maglako's training wasn't as brutal or grueling as Zoro's previous training since Naruto had already built up his physical strength profusely compared to his scrawny build when he had first started.

He could only learn about five techniques before tiring, and vice versa with Maglako's teaching. By the time they were finished the training ground was littered was cuts across the surface of the ground from the rapier and katana.

Both student and teacher lay on the ground breathing heavily and bleeding from the cuts they left each other "You are very proficient in the art of swordplay Cinderface-kun! Though you aren't on Zoro's level yet there's still a large gap in strength in between your self at the beginning of the day and how you are now."

"Great, I guess it will be the same time tomorrow then?" Naruto asked while standing himself up.

Once he saw Maglako nod for yes, Naruto sheathed all three of his swords at his side and began heading toward the exit for some rest. However he had to unsheath Shodai Kitetsu to block several bullets headed his way.

Several visibly drunk men armed with rifles and weapons surrounded the training area and began closing in on the two swordsman "Alright demon, you and your little helper are going to die tonight!"

The one who claimed this charged at Naruto with a hacksaw, but his strike was deflected and returned. Naruto pulled his hood up in preparation for battle and asked his teacher "Want to help me teach these bastards a lesson Maglako-sensei?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Maglako then let out a large rotating stab which sent the drunk villagers back while cutting them and even impaling a few of then began spinning his sword around in a circle cutting anyone that got close. Then he used the blade of his rapier to pole vault himself up into the air and rained jabs down onto his attackers.

**"Hop of the Whispering Duckling: Honey Muffin Blitz"**

"What the hell's that supposed to mean, you damn Freakshow?!"

With all his opponents defeated Maglako dropped back down into the field of unconcious bodies and calmly said "Booyah!" before mowing down the next wave of opponents.

Naruto was defeating his enemies with similar ease, simply blocking a shot and striking back, as the villagers had little to no experience with actually fighting. This eventually started to get tedious for Naruto as he kept doing the same thing several times over. After sometime he decided to end this quicker by using a new technique he had just learned. He jumped up into the air and began sending down slashes onto the civilians.

**"Karasuma Gari"**

It only took seconds before all of his attackers were down and bleeding on the floor of the training ground. Naruto looked around to see that Maglako had taken care of all of his opponents as well.

"Good job Cinderface-kun, this was good showcase of your skills. We'll repeat this every day for the next three weeks. Now we should get some rest. Night time is when The Langoliers come out!" Maglako warned before running of screaming about the Langoliers, much to Naruto's irritation.

"This is going to be a long three weeks isn't it?"

* * *

Three weeks and one day later and Maglako walked out of a nearby restaurant. Or rather ran from the pissed of owner after he dined and dashed his food. He managed to run up to the roof of a nearby building where the owner couldn't find him.

Once he was absolutely sure he was safe, the eccentric man stood up and said "Take that you bastard! Your never gonna catch me, I'm king of the world!"

"Still causing trouble, even when I ask favors of you eh, Maglako?" asked a smooth yet judgemental voice from behind. The man who said that was a tall black haired man with facial hair sand sideburns, wearing a red coat with a red floral pattern and black sleeves, gray slacks, and a cross shaped pendant around his neck, along with another large crucifix on his back. But what was really striking about him was his yellow hawk like eyes.

"Oh hey Mihawk. I didn't know you would be checking on me in purpose Otouto! Naruto's training has gone well, and with any luck he'll be ready to fight Pein when the time comes."

"We can only hope. I will complete the final phase of his training when we cross paths, like I have done for Zoro. Those two are a lot like us when we were young aren't they Maglako-niisan."

"Yes I have no doubt that when the time comes, one of them will be the one to take your title." Maglako answered to his younger brother.

"By the way, how come you've never tried to take back your title from me? You worked hard to take it from the Nidaime Senju so it doesn't make much sense that you'd give it up so easily."

"The answer to that is simple Otouto. I find it's no fun living in yesterday, as that's why it's called the past. That's why I always remind myself of the past of this earth to remember to embrace the future. Cause after all the future in the future, failure is not an option!"

With that Mihawk watched as Maglako jumped down from the roof and waved goodbye, only to be chased almost instantly by a mob of pissed off resturant owners and chefs. Mihawk chuckled at the sight before heading off for the unknown waters of the New World once again.

* * *

Meanwhile up in the Hokage's office Naruto was having another heated conversation with the old man " And your sure there's not any blacklist missions I can do Jiji? I might not like it but fighting is the most easy way I know how to get money,a nd right now I need to pay rent!"

"Sorry but you can't do any bounty hunting and or assassination missions until you reach Chunin rank, the most you can do is C rank,and we're almost out of those. So you might have to settle for a D-rank."

"Come on old man, not only will it take like fifty of those things to actually get the amount of beris I need, but there all incredibly boring! At least throw me a C-rank!" Naruto pleaded with his grandfather figure.

"Well there is one I think I could give you. It's a town several shinobi from every village in the area have gone missing in. We'll need somebody to check it out. The only downside is that it's a team mission." Sarutobi explained

Naruto grimaced at the very thought of having to do anything with his old team and said "You know what, I think I'm fine with just painting fences and picking up dogshit all day!"

"Relax Naruto. I am fully aware of your feelings towards your old team, so I've decided that you'll be leading a team of people who didn't make it as far as you in the exams. So as of this momen, your a temporary jounin!" Sarutobi explained as he pointed to the door and four familiar faces came in.

"Hey Naruto, how you doing man?"

"You look a lot better than you did after that fight at the hospital 3 weeks ago!"

"Yosh! Naruto, my eternal rival! I am happy to see that your flames of youth burn as brightly as ever. You are certain to defeat Neji!" Said a bandaged up and crutched up Lee, who despite his condition looked as happy as always.

However the last of the makeshift team looked less than happy to see him "Oh great, I'd hoped I'd never see you again dobe."

"Believe me the feelings mutual dogbreath. I heard you had a little talk with your nana about those pills you smuggled in. I trust you learned your lesson?" Naruto taunted back at his enemy.

"Please, the only reason you won is cause that proctor was blind! Your lucky I have to root for you against that bastard Neji. Otherwise I'd flatten you right here and now, especially after what you did to Akumaru Marimo baby!"

Naruto took offense to the nickname and unsheathed the Shodai Kitetsu to stimulate a threat. The moment he heard the click of the sword however Kiba immediately backed into a corner with a terrified look on his face.

"No no please, put that away! Don't hurt me I'll be good I swear! Just no more slicing or stabbing or jabbing!" Kiba begged unusualy to his loud and proud personality.

Befuddled at his sudden reaction, Naruto quickly sheathed it. Sensing this confusion, Ino approaches shim and whispered "After getting curbstomped by you, Kiba has developed aichmophobia, which is a fear of sharp or pointy objects. Typically it's medical needles but in this case it appears to solely be katana that are directed at him."

Understanding Naruto nodded his head and turned to Sarutobi once again "So what's the name of this town we're supposed to check it out Jiji-Sama?"

"Apparently it's a town called Īsuki Pīku."

Naruto winced at the similarities of another town he had heard about with a similar title but merely shrugged it off "Alright team we're burning daylight every second we're out here. Let's head out."

"Now wait just a minute! Who died and put you in charge dobe!" Kiba tried to

"The Hokage, Kiba, the Hokage."

* * *

It was about 5 o'clock and the team was in a shinobi railroad caravan boarded on it's way to Īsuki Pīku. For the most part it was quiet trip with very little interaction. Naruto fell into a deep sleep the moment they boarded, while Kiba glared him down. Chouji switched periodically from depression to stuffing his face with BBQ flavored chips and Lee training with his good arm while preaching of the power of youth. All while Ino was caught in the middle.

Eventually she could take it no longer and decided to break the silence "So guys, do you think these villagers are up to something, like all these reports say?"

"There's no way to know unless we check things out for ourselves. For all we know it could just be an average town that just has a lot of coincidental disappearances!" Chouji gave his two cents on the situation.

"Well quite personally, I'm actually hoping that something comes up there! It'll give me a chance to use my new swords on somebody besides a bunch of drunken idiots!" Said a recently awoken Naruto.

Just as he had finished speaking the group of shinobi heard a loud noise coming from their destination. Naruto armed himself for any in coming enemy and moved to the top of the caravan to scope out what was happening outside.

But to his surprise he didn't see a large army of bloodthirsty warriors ready to tear their team to shreds. They appeared to be a normal town who were cheering their arrival complete with signs.

"Naruto, my eternal rival! Where's that loud noise coming from?" Lee asked as he stuck his head out the vehicles door.

"I think… they're cheering for us!"

From inside the caravan the others looked pretty excited at the prospect of this warm welcome, most notably "Yep, it's about time someone cheers for how great I am. I bet if I had Akamaru with me, they'do be cheering even louder, cause of how awesome we are!"

"Oh get over yourself dogbreath!"

It took about five minutes for the caravan to completly stop. When they stepped out they were met by a man with his long black hair tied back into a ponytail, wearing a black kimono.

"Welcome brave shinobi! I am Seomraí, the mayor of this village. It is a great honor to welcome you to our town of Īsuki Pīku." The man introduced himself "We live in a place where making liquor and music is commonplace, and we pride ourselves on hospitality. Would you permit us to throw a party for your arrival?"

All five shinobi immediately agreed.

* * *

Within hours the entire village was in an uproar from the party. The team was doing what was expected of them in this situation. Kiba and Lee flirted with the women of the village, while Chouji ate so much that some chefs fainted from exhaustion. Ino excitedly partied along with villagers, but Naruto stayed suspicious merely sitting drinking the whiskey given to him.

The mayor took notice of this and approached him "I see your taking a liking to our specially made wine. We make from the finest grapes, and what's more is that there's absolutely zero alchohol."

"Yeah, it is pretty tasty. All it needs is Ichiraku Ramen and it'd be my dream meal." Naruto said nonchalantly.

"Well we're about to have a drinking contest. If you care to join in then raise your glass. The prize is 100,000 beris!" Seomraí explained. Both Ino and Naruto immediately got a mug.

_'100,000 beris! Just imagining what I could by with that makes me drool!'_

_'With that reward plus the fee from this mission, I'll be able to pay rent no problem, with a couple thousand beris left over. As long as Kurama stays sober, I'll have this contest in the bag.'_

The party kept going gone. Chouji kept eating more barbecue. Lee kept preaching the power of youth. Kiba kept flirting with swooning woman. And Naruto and Ino kept drinking as others fell from the competition.

After about two more hours the team began dropping like flies. Chouji had finally fulled his gut to its absolute limit, while Kiba and Lee just flat out dropped from exhaustion. Soon the only ones left were Ino and Naruto still in the same drinking contest.

"Alright, I'm done. Thirteen mugs is enough for me!" Ino said as she fell unconcious from drunkness.

"Really Ino? Your so frickin' weak." Naruto told her feeling tipsy himself _'Hey Kurama you holding up ok in there buddy?'_

**_'Oh come on Naruto buddy. Let's go play some fetch or something. I have the shiniest meat bicycle. The government is bees!"_**

_'Well looks like I'll have to take care of this last guy by myself!' _Naruto thought to himself while standing against his last opponent for the cup. A green eyed man who appeared to be a priest.

"If you want to forfeit there's no shame. If you drink much more it'll be dangerous to your health!" The preacher said.

"Nice try you weirdo, but I never give in! That's my nindo, my ninja way! Or is it no cuts, no buts, no coconuts? Oh what the hell does it matter I'm still gonna beat you. HAHAHAHA" slurred a clearly drunk Naruto.

With one more drink the priest fell causing Naruto to leap with joy "YES! I'M NOT GOING HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT RENT THIS MONTH! HAAHAHAHAHAHA!" before passing out still laughing faintly.

"Well then. This was fun, but now we need to get down to business Cinderface." The mayor said as he stood over Naruto's out cold body.

* * *

The towns people met under the light of the crescent moon with the sleeping ninja inside the building of the party. Two shinobi in black robes came out towards Seomraí who had both Kiba and Chouji draped over his back.

One was a blue haired woman with piercing and a violet rose in her hair, with a scratched out Konoha headband, while the other had an Iwa one, with long blonde hair that he kept tied back into a ponytail.

"So Orochimaru, you've captured the nine tailed jinchuriki and his cohorts?" The blue haired woman asked.

"Yes Lady Angel. It was much easier than I thought. I expected the legendary Cinderface to be a bit smarter than to fall for such a simple trap. He's in there." Seomraí said as he transformed back into Orochiamaru.

"Good, though I'm a tad dissapiointed I couldn't perform my art for them on this mission! By the way what made you decide to ally yourself with us again, especially because of how miffed Scorpion was at you when you left?" The blonde asked.

Orochimaru sneered and said "It was just neccesary for what I'm planning is all."

The green eyed man from before came out taking off his priest disguise while rubbing his throbbing head "Hey Heartless. I heard you got your ass kicked at drinking earlier!"

"Can it Artist. It was a jinchuriki, you know it's almost impossible to get them drunk. I'm actually suprised that we did." Kakuzu rebuffed his comrade's teasing.

"Stop fighting you two! What matters is that we captured the one who defeated Ikō and Brother. Lord Pein will be pleased at this." Konan Broke apart the two ill tempered men.

"Not quite morons."

The group looked up to see a completely awake Naruto with a sword in his hadn't staring them down on the roof of a building "A swordsman never lets his guard down, especially under odd circumstances. And besides I don't get drunk. Let's see about 75 of you rats. Shame I was hoping it would be at least a hundred. Now let's see how strong you freakshows really are, Akatsuki!"

"How do you know of us!"

"You sent three of your goons after me before, remember? And by the way, if your gonna try and capture someone, don't rip off a failed criminal syndicate from two years ago! Even the name is a ripoff!"

A clearly pissed off Orochimaru looked up to him and said "So your reputation is not unearned. You are indeed one of the strongest Jinchuriki. But you are still no match for my power as a Sannin. It is time for you to die, Roronoa Naruto!"

* * *

Meanwhile in Konoha, a man walked down a dark path on his way home from work. Iruka Umino. He had to stay at school early for conference between an angry Civillian who was mad that their child kept getting counted late, despite the fact that they always did.

He knew that Anko would be angry, so he walked over a recently installed transponder booth, to explain the situation. But for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

Iruka began dialing the number but a cold and emotionless voice "Iruka Umino, I presume?" The one who said this was about Naruto's age with black hair and an ANBU attire.

"Yes. Judging from your clothing I'd say your a member of the ANBU Black Ops. Now what would they want with me?" Iruka asked, while discreetly drawing a kunai.

"Your a bit off there Mr. Umino. I'm a member of ROOT and a Shotatsu in the organization for a better world The Santatsu Foundation. But enough about me, it's time for your execution, for involvement with the Kyuubi, Mr. Umino" Sai said.

However Sai could block the multitude of kunai and shuriken coming his way,which hit his body and sent him to the ground bleeding black blood "Sorry kid, but I've been expecting some bullshit like this, from the Civilian Council for awhile now. And besides, I've got a daughter to come home to and I'm not leaving Anko alone to raise her."

Iruka then walked off but he then felt an incredibly sharp pain in his left leg, and then nothing at all down there. He looked back to see that Sai had sliced it clean off and the one he had killed was just a fake.

"I apologize for having to do this Iruka, but don't worryyour wife will be joining you once we have control of the Asura." Sai said as he raised his blade. Iruka closed his eyes and waited for the final strike. It never came.

"Hey what are you doing?!"

"Get your hands off of him!"

Kotetsu and Izumo ran towards the scene of the attack, which gave Sai the motivation to flee. While Kotetsu gave him chase, Izumo stayed behind and offered aid "Iruka, hold on! Hold on, we'll get a medic in no time!"

Those were the last things he heard before everything went black.

* * *

**(A/N):… Um Hi**

***Multiple shots are fired at Skillet***

**Calm down people I'm not killing Iruka! I'll leave up,to you whether you want him to die or just be to messed up to work as a shinobi again. There will be a poll on my profile. In the meantime I'm sorry that this chapter was a bit foolery in it's second half, but I want some plot points I want to get out before the finals of the Chunin Exams. I promise those chapters will be really cool! The world knows I don't need anyone else wanting to kill me after Cedric figures out I cancelled Voodoo's Disciple.**

**Cedric: WHAT?**

**Skillet: Aw crap. Move onto the rec while I run screaming like a little girl**

**Cedric: I'm gonna rip your ribcage!**

**Skillet's Recs:**

**This chapter's rec will be…**

**Zatch Bell:**

**This has to be one of the most underrated anime of all time there's not much I can really say about without spoiling it but what I can say is that should all watch it!**

**By the way special thanks to Raidentensho for coming up with one of Naruto's new swords. You rule man.**

**Cedric: Get back here!**

**Skillet: SOMEBODY SAVE ME!**

**Next Chapter: The Akatsuki Plays Its Hand**

**. . .**


	13. The Akatsuki Plays Its Hand

** Disclaimer:…**

**Ikō: Ummm where's Skillet? And why do we keep having these for disclaimers?**

**Cedric: Probably because Kishimoto and Oda have better things to do than read this story.**

**Ikō: That was an in joke. But seriously where the hell is Skillet?**

**Cedric: I think he went on permanent vacation to the Bahamas.**

**Ikō: Cedric, what did you do?!**

**Cedric: Are you suggesting I did something to him. How dare you? I am a respected member of the society!**

**Ikō: Your a registered sociopath that practices voodoo like a Disney Villain. In fact I'm pretty sure your some sort of freaky mix of Dr. Facilier and King Candy from Wreck-it Ralph**

**Voice from Underground: _Somebody Please Help Me!_**

**Ikō: What the hell was that!?**

**Cedric: Oh that must be Bloody Mary back for revenge on us**

**Ikō: You sent her to hell with your voodoo chapters ago **

**Cedric: Well maybe it was Kyuubi. The text formatting was the same**

**Ikō: He's standing right over there!**

**Kurama: Sup?**

**Ikō: Cedric, what did you do to Skillet?!**

**Cedric: Oh I just buried him alive for canceling my story.**

**Ikō:…What? You buried the only reason we're alive, because he cancelled a story that hardly**** got any views or reviews, that he didn't even have fun writing?! One that he explicitly said he was going to rewrite once he was done with this arc!?**

**Cedric: Yes exactly.**

**Ikō: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG YOU!**

**Cedric: I'm not the one that sent out a chain letter without Skillet's permission**

**Ikō: That was months ago! And I'm not the one who buried him alive. **

**Cedric: Fine you can dig him back up while I upload the next chapter.**

**Ikō: No, I upload the chapter while dig him back up. And when you do he's probably going to fire you!**

**Cedric:Oh joy**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 12: The Akatsuki Plays its Hand**

* * *

It was about midnight in the fake town of Īsuki Pīku, and the streets were littered with unconcious bodies. So far Naruto had easily dispatched a majority of the minor Akatsuki agents stationed there.

He looked around the road to be wary of any surprise attacks, that might be coming. An agent jumped at him from behind with a cutlass, but Naruto easily dispatched him with the Yamakawa-O.

Naruto heard scattering noises closing in, like Shino's bikochu beetles. He looked around to see that several clay insects were surrounding him. With the little time he had he jumped up the rooftops to avoid them, which he just barely did.

Once he had made it onto one of the roofs he saw Deidera flying on a clay hawk, before landing to face him "Like my Devil Fruit power? I ate the Sculpt-Sculpt Fruit, so now I can morph my explosive clay into anything I chose!"

"Great, you can make crap out of clay. I'm sure your kindergarten teacher is very proud of you, you damn okama!" Naruto insulted the Akatsuki member. Deidera looked incredibly put off by this and howled.

"You dare insult my art Jinchuriki?"

**"Rocket Stinger"**

The pissed off man dumped a large load of clay into the mouth on his hand which fired hornet shaped projectiles at him. Naruto sliced one in half with the Shodai Kitetsu but it exploded and knocked him into the building.

The remaining hornet bombs flew rapidly at Naruto, while he was imprinted into the hole in the bricks. Naruto grimaced at them, and barely avoided them before they landed and detonated, giving Naruto enough air to glide across the town, where Kakazu awaited.

"Kakazu, correct? From my information, despite the fact that you look no less than forty, your actually in your nineties. You've managed this feat by stealing the hearts of your fallen opponents and using them to replace your own. You joined up with the Akatsuki about 9 years ago, and have been working with a serial killer that terrorized Yugakure and Iwa a few years back, Hidan the Reaper."

"Your profiles on us are uncanny Cinderface. I'm afraid that's exactly why you need to die!" Kakazu said as several black wires shot out from underneath. Naruto cut through them before he could be grabbed and ran towards him at large ferocity.

In order to stop in his tracks Kakazu brought a heart to his chest and fired several balls of ice from the mask's mouth. Naruto blocked with Kurama, melting the ice immediately giving him enough time to stab him through the heart.

Kakazu fell down writhing in agony before fallling unconscious. Naruto knew he would be back up soon with a new heart very soon so he charged from roof to roof, before he was struck by a column of papers midway through a jump.

When he made his painful landing Konan landed in front of him "Hello Cinderface. I am Lady Angel, eater of the Note-Note Fruit and a paper woman."

"I could really care less what the hell you are. Your going down!"

Konan sent more slips of paper flying at him, which he had to block rapidly. Despite this he was still cut several times by the paper's razor sharp edges. He inched forward towards the woman with intent to stab with Kurama, but to his suprise she called her papers back, forcing him to speed up his defense.

The papers she called back formed wings which she used to send a large gust at Naruto, which knocked him back once again. He hooked the flat of the Shodai Kitetsu onto a post and maneuvering out of the way of the blast.

"I'm gonna wanna steer clear of her for now. Now that I know his powers to their full extent, I might want to fight that clay freak first. Then wake up Lee or Chouji to fight that paper woman." Naruto brainstormed before noticing the giant paper bird speeding towards him.

"You can't get away from me that easily Cinderface!"

With the small amount of time he had before his opponent swooped down onto him, Naruto unsheathed Kurama and lied down to avoid being grabbed. He waited till she was just over him before he stabbed. Konan kept flying, creating a bigger wound. She fell out cold as she crashed to the pavement below.

Naruto looked on her unconscious body below and said to himself "That was to close! Looks like I'll have to use one of the new techniques I learned from Maglako-sensei after all. Shame too, I was hoping I could try them out on Neji-teme first."

"There you are!"

The swordsman turned around to see that Deidera was flying towards him on his clay bird, and was currently firing on him with his mouth hand. Naruto avoided the clay bullets before they could impact. He jumped off the crumbling roof and sheathed Kurama, preparing for his new attack.

He swung Yamakawa-o and Shodai Kitetsu from the right side, sending the slash through the air at the artist.

**"Hirameki!"**

Deidera noticed the inevitable attack, as Naruto landed on his feet below, and began adding to the size of the bullets. But the attack continued forward, slicing through them as the exploded, not slowing in the slightest. The slash hit Deidera and sent him toppling off his bird, falling through the roof the building underneath.

"Three down one to go. But Orochimaru's not going to be as easy to take down as those other guys!"

"Your correct Cinderface-san. Your almost as hard to fight as Sasuke-san, judging by how much trouble you've given the Akatsuki tonight. But a Sannin will not fall for your silly tricks." Orochimaru said as he stood in front of him in the road.

Naruto armed himself with all three of his swords and answered "Bring it Ronald McDonald!"

Visibly irritated at the insult, Orochimaru did multiple hand signs before popping open a bottle of Sake he had hitched to his waist. A large torrent of fire then when flying out of the Sannin's mouth.

**"Fire Style: Flame Bullet"**

Kurama absorbed the flame the Sannin fired at his tenant. Orochimaru quickly did more hand signs in order to slow his opponent down.

**"Earth Style: Underworld Swamp"**

The ground opened up beneath Naruto to reveal a large mass of mud that completely trapped his lower body. To his suprise not only did the pit restrict every movement, but it was also sapping his strength.

_**'Kid, I'm gonna get you out of here don't worry! All I have to do is release enough youkai to completely deactivate the jutsu!' **_Kurama said to his trapped container.

Orochimaru approached Naruto with a smug look on his face and said "Nine tails, captured." before a large wave of killing intent came from Naruto's body, and his eyes turned blood red. Screaming in agony the Jutsu surrounding him eroded away.

All while the snake sage looked on in fear "What kind of terrible power is this. Is this the power of the Kyuubi!"

When the trap had completely faded, Naruto stood in the middle of the hole with his blood racing even faster through his veins. He looked up at Orochmaru with bloodthirsty red eyes, and drew the Shodai Kitetsu towards the snake. He had delved into Breaking Blade.

"Now let's see who' stronger Snake-teme. A demon or a sage?" Naruto taunted his target with sadism dripping off of his deep tone, before charging at the horrified Orochimaru. Just as Naruto was about to strike down Orochimaru, a voice called out, stopping Naruto dead in his tracks.

"Stop right there Cinderface!"

Naruto turned around to see Konan completely unfazed and healed, and Kakazu and Deidera a bit shaken up and injured, but otherwise fine. And next to them they held a fully awake Kiba with Deidera's hand pressed up against his throat.

"What? You two make sense, but those no way that the paper woman could have healed that fast!" Naruto stated incredibly confused.

Konan decided to explain the situation to the befuddled swordsman "The Lady Angel you had killed was just a shadow clone. There's no way you could have defeated me so easily. I admit you have definetly improved from your fight against Brother, but you are still match for a chairman of the Akatsuki."

"That's right Cinderface! Now drop your swords or the Inuzuka gets to be me next work of art!" Deidera gave Naruto his options.

Kiba looked at his rival with a scowl, thinking to himself _'Great, my life's in the hands person who hates me the most. Looks like Akamaru is gonna have to find a new owner. Sorry buddy, I wish I could have been a bett-'_

"Alright you win. I'll come with you, just let my friends leave here without any trouble." Naruto quickly responded to their demands, while setting his swords down.

This reaction greatly surprised Kiba who screamed out in confused frustration "What the hell are you doing! I can understand why you'd want to save Lee, Chouji, or hell even Ino. After everything I've said to you and everything I've done to you! Why? Why are you doing this Naruto?"

"You-you didn't call me dobe…" was all Naruto said before he was struck from behind by a large blaze.

**"Fire Style: Flame Bullet"**

The mass of fire completely blew Naruto away along with completely incinerating his blue coat. As he was sent tumbling to ground, completely scorched and out cold, Konan and Orochimaru's eyes widened to incredibly length as they saw his face for the first time. Both Missing-Nin whispered to themselves

"Minato-Sama?"

"He's alive, but that can't be, the ANBU showed me his corpse eighteen years ago!"

Both of them quickly regained their composure as Kiba dropped to his knees from shock and fear "The kyuubi has been captured. Now there is only one thing to do. Artist?"

"You got it Lady Angel!" Deidera said as began loading more clay into his hand. Kiba tightened his eyes shut, assuming that the chairman was going to fire down on him. But to his surprise, the sound went off but it wasn't at him.

Deidera had fired on Orochimaru. After a few moments, a much deeper and less slithery voice came out from the smoke "I have to commend you on seeing through my disguise. My impression of my old teammate was rather impeccable. Not to brag of course!"

"Please Jiraya. I knew it was you the moment I saw you spying on me in the shower. Everyone in the Akatsuki knows how big of a horndog you are." Konan rebuffed his gloating.

When the smoke cleared, a large sheild of spiky white hair blocked Deidera's attack. It retracted to reveal a muscular long haired old man wearing a green kimono with a red vest over it. He had long red markings that went down from his eyes all the way to his chin, a horned hitai-ate with the characters for _Mount Myōboku _imprinted on them, and wooden geta.

"Wait, did she just say?"

"Yes young Inuzuka. I am not the traitor to Konoha, the infamous Orochimaru. In truth I am the great master of espionage, and teacher of the Yondaime himself! I am the shinobi who woman want, mem want to be, and children look up to! I am the all powerful Jiray-"

Before he could finish Deidera shot him again, with another ball of clay sending him to the ground, weak and tired from the size of the attack, as he didn't guard this time "If your so great than don't ramble on like an idiot when there are clearly enemies nearby!"

"Now are works is done. Let's bring the nine tails jinchuriki to Lord Pein. Then our job is done, and we can leave the others here for the rescue team to find them." Konan ordered the other chairman.

"Not so fast! I don't think we should let the others off the hook so easily!" Kakazu spoke out.

"What do you mean by that Heartless? We made a deal with jinchuriki to let them go."

Kakazu turned to Kiba with a predatory glare and answered while growing his threads out "So what? He's a dead man anyways. I'm itching to make a few beris off of these job, and I know that the World Nobles that are always looking to buy more slaves!"

Kiba immediately froze up upon hearing the words "World Noble", "Buy", and "Slave" in the same sentence, due to how notoriously cruely the World Nobles treated their slaves _'No! I can' to through that! That's a fate worse than death! Please no, somebody save me'_

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

**"Expansion Jutsu: Bullet Punch"**

In mere seconds Kakazu was kicked into a wall by Lee, and Chouji had slammed Deidera into the distance, both incapacitated "Crap, we spent so much energy fighting Cinderface that we're vulnerable to any other attacks!"

The moment she finished talking Konan was knocked out in an instant by an incredibly painful headache, as Ino had warped her mind from behind "Let's get this straight girlie, I won't tolerate you hurting my friends!"

"Thanks a whole you guys. If I had to work for those wimps I'd absolutely lose my mind!" Kiba thanked the rest of the group.

"Don't mention it. But what I want to know is who's the old fart over there!" Ino asked referring to Jiraya, who was currently kneeling in front of Naruto with theirs in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll explain everything once he wakes up. I want him to hear everything I have to say. But judging how poorly Ichigo was treated, I really don't think he could forgive this old man for what he didn't now."

* * *

Back in Kûmèn Temple, Kakashi had long since awoken, but was still to weak even move due to the effects of the sedative "Iruka is probably dead by now. Just another person I've let down."

As he remained tied there wallowing in pity, a Root ANBU with brown hair hair tied back into a ponytail approached with a purée of food. He was used to this though as they were all that he was given during his tenure in the temple.

"Only about five months before we ship you off to Lougetown, you demon loving sack of shit! Enjoy your lunch. It's made from the bests of exotic fruit…That was salvaged from a shipwreck that fell from the sky! HAHHAHAHAHAHA!" Hyō laughed sadistically like a hyena, while feeding Kakashi the drink through his mask.

To him the drink tasted like absolute shit, but he didn't care. His mind was solely focused on how he failed to save Iruka from his fate. Hyō noticed this and broke the glass he was feeding him through, before mocking him further "Aw, someone a little cranky that he couldn't save his playmate from being put in timeout? Well don't worry I've got some good news for you! We finally found the demon brat you looked for so zealously for six years ago!"

_'Naruto!'_

"But that's not all! He's in the Chunin Exams Finals with Uchiha-Sama, who by the way has joined our organization as a Nitatsu! And when he and the Suna demon go to fight, we'll unleash the tow freaks powers onto Konoha just like we did to Ichigo. You remember him don't you Hatake?"

_'…Niisan…'_

"And here's the best part. Once the spots been cleared for the Asura Tower, we'll have him executed for attacking Konaha again! Then the Hyuga-bitch he's so fond of, Yamanaka, the Snake-Whore, and any other bitch we feel like will be offered up to the Uchiha as wives to restore the Uchiha clan!"

This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as Kakashi exploded with pure, unadulterated rage, and a red lightning surrounded him completely **"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF THESE SHAMEFUL MATTERS WITH SUCH PRIDE! YOU MOCK MY BROTHER'S DEATH, YOU HAVE MY FRIEND KILLED, AND YOU THREATEN TO WRECK THE LIFE OF MY ONLY STUDENT WHO ACTUALLY LEARNED THE LESSONS I TRIED TO TEACH HIM! FOR THAT I CAN NEVER FORGIVE YOU!".**

Red lightning completly consumed the room, obliterating everything it's path. The pole that had confined Kakashi for so long had been burnt to a crisp, and Hyō was incinerated to ash in the wake of its power.

Kakashi dropped to the floor for the first time in years, once the power had faded. He could only ponder to himself "What just happened? Was that a Devil Fruit power? But that doesn't make any sense! I've never eaten a Devil Fruit before, and I-"

_'The fruit from that shitty puré!'_

"Oh well. I'll worry about that later. Right now my main priority is making it out of this dump before the Chunin Exams. This is one thing you can't be late for Kakashi. Get ready Danzō, cause the very second I get out of here I'll fry that mole of yours! Then I'm coming for you!"

As the alarms went off around him, Kakashi blew down the door containing him with the Lightning Cutter. He estimated it would take him about a day and a half to escape the tower, get out of the Forest of Death, and make it to the Finals. But nothing could keep him from stopping the invasion that was to come.

* * *

Naruto awoke to a cold and wet feeling suddenly attacking his face. He angrily looked around to see the assailant of the prank.

"Alright who's the wise guy?!"

Chouji quickly explained his actions "Sorry, but I was getting hungry and you didn't look like you were going to get up any time soon."

After he cooled down Naruto looked around to see the members of his team crowded him, along with an unconcious Deidera, Konan, and Kakazu. But Naruto remembered another one of their attackers were missing.

"Wait a minute! Where'd that snake go?"

Jiraya stood up from the group and began explaining "There is a bit of a misunderstanding Naruto, son of Minato! For you see I was disguising myself as Orochimaru, in order to gain information on the criminal syndicate Akatsuki. I am the master of espionage, and teacher of the Yondaime himself! I am the shinobi who woman want, mem want to be, and children look up to! I am the all powerful Jiray-"

He was interrupted when Kiba slammed his head in out of frustration "Get on with it! I want to get back to Konoha by tomorrow!"

"Keep your dress on Inuzuka I'm getting to that!"

"What does any of this have to do with me? And how do you know who my father is?"

"The answer to that question is simple Naruto. I am your godfather"

About few seconds later Jiraya was sent flying into a wall by an incredibly pissed off shinobi. He was picked up by the collar of his kimono, by the one who attacked him. But it wasn't Naruto as you might expect. It was Chouji.

"Why you bastard! You think you can just leave Naruto to the wayside for 12 years of his life, and then just show up and drop his bomb on him. Where the hell were you when Naruto was getting neglected and tortured by the people of Konoha! Where were you when he got stuck on a team where almost no one cared whether he lived or died! Where were you when he had to leave because it got so bad! Where the hell were you when the World-fricking Government put a 50,000,000 beri bounty on his head! Why the hell weren't you there for him for all these years. Tell me you bastard! TELL MEEEEE!"

"Chouji, calm down and give him a chance to expla-"

"Can it Ino! As far as I'm concerned this jackass doesn't deserve the chance! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't smash you into pieces!"

"I didn't know…I didn't know he was even alive all these years. I was approached by an ANBU about a week after the incident. They showed me a baby's corpse!" Jiraya explained while tearing up.

"The Corpse Clone Jutsu. Danzō must have gotten a hold of my DNA and made a Corpse Clone. Then he sent one of his lackeys to make sure you didn't come to save me from the utter hell awaiting me."

"Yeah, now that I think about that's probably the case."

"You heard the swordsman Chouji. Set the geezer down!"

"Hey who are you calling a geezer gaki!?" Jiraya yelled as Chouji reluctantly set him down, though he still gave him a harsh glare.

Ino then approached the sage and asked him "Now who was this Minato guy you were talking about? Naruto's father."

"Ah yes. Let me explain. Naruto's father was the one who sealed the Kyuubi into him 18 years ago, the Yondaime Hokage. Minato Namikaze!" Jiraya revealed to everyone in the vicinity.

"WHAT?"

"Do you mean to tell me that the man who put Kurama inside of me is my father! How the hell does this make any sense!"

"What I'm more confused about is how the hell you can fit a fox, the size of a city into a 10 pound gaki!" Kiba said equally confused.

"Wait if Naruto's the son of the Yondaime, who's pretty much the only reason this village is still standing why do they treat him like shit?" Ino asked.

"Simple. Minato couldn't ask any other parent to give up their child to seal away the demon. Minato had hoped the villagers would see his son as a hero who assisted in the Kyuubi's defeat, but he was foolish to not see the darkness and arrogance in their hearts. Many of the villagers Ee him as nothing more than the demon reincarnated. Danzō and his men keep it quiet on the subject of his heritage, in order to keep their power over the Hokage."

"So I'm guessing that everyone in my family died when Kurama came the town. Correct?"

"That's a likely guess. But now that I've seen Konan, who was part of a team with your two older brothers Nagato and Yahiko, alive and well, I'm beginning to think that one of them might be Pein!"

That's when the utter confusion of the bombshells became to much to bear for Kiba "What a minute! Naruto's the warden of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, his father is the Yondaime, and his older brother is the leader of a continent wide criminal syndicate not to mention he has a surrogate one that's an infamous bounty hunter! What is his grandpa Ex-Fleet Admiral Sengoku or something?"

_'Shit they've figured out our biggest secret! I'm sorry Lord Pein, but I still can't move and the others are still out cold. This is really bad!'_

"So you've figured out the identity of our master. It doesn't really matter to me. Even if I don't have a partner I can still make the dream of Absolute Justice come true." Said a cold and emotionless voice from further down the road. One Naruto had hoped never to hear again.

"Rob Lucci!"

The Ex-CP9 agent looked him down with a steely gaze, in a similar manner as two years ago. But this time he didn't wear a black buisness suit. But an Akatsuki cloak "Nowadays I go by Justice. I haven't forgotten how you were one of th those responsible for the destruction of Enies Lobby. But I will have to take my revenge on you at a later date. For now I need to pick up my comrades!"

"Not so fast Leopard man. If you think you can just walk in here without a fight, you've got another thing coming!" Naruto said as he armed himself once again.

"All I heard was leopard and I hate cats!"

**"Shave"**

Before they could fight though, Lucci had already used his speed to grab the three fallen chairman and sped off into the unknown. Lee stood up planning on pursuing him with his own Devil Fruit, but he finally collapsed from his body's current weakness.

"Damn it Bushy Brows. You got to remember your still weak from the operation. Hell, I'm surprised you could even fight Kakazu in the first place."

Naruto then felt a hand placed on his shoulder "Look Gaki. I know all the terrible things that happened to Ichigo when he was alive, and since you likely got it even worse I know It's probably hard for you to forgive me."

"Don't be ridiculous you old fart. Sure I've gone through a lot of bullshit in my life, but if I had never become Kurama's tenant I would have never met Zoro-Niisan, and I would have never become a swordsman. And I did manage to make a lot of cool friends, so there's a plus!"

"Yeah, and don't forget all your little lovers times with Hinata!" Ino teased the swordsman much to his ire.

"What the hell are you talking about Ino?! We're not even official!"

Jiraiya however seemed very interested "How adorable, puppy love between, a criminal and a princess. Actually now that I think about it that's an amazing for my next Icha Icha novel. Now give me some deets on the subject gaki!"

"Why the hell would I tell you something like that! And wait a minute, you're the one who writes all those pervy novels Kakashi read!"

"Here's our last team picture from about a year ago." Kiba said as he handed it to Jiraiya, much to Naruto's ire.

"Woah! She's a fox! You did really good for yourself gaki, especially since your nowhere near as handsome as I!" Jiraiya said as he looked over the picture, before a wave of killing intent hit both him and Kiba.

"Both of you better can it! Kiba, don't give out pictures of your teammates to just anybody! Ero-Sennin, do not speak of Hinata in such a vulgar way in my presence again. Unless you feel like getting fixed!"

"Yes, we're sorry! We won't do it again!" Both of the terrified men huddled together.

Naruto turned around and began walking towards their destination "Alright then, it's late at night and I'm pretty sure we all want to get home. Let's head out!"

While they followed him Kiba whispered into Jiraiya's ear "Was the Yondaime this scary?

"No, Naruto must have gotten that gene from his mother Kushina!"

* * *

The makeshift team plus Jiraiya walked up to the village gates where Shikamaru, Tenten, and the other members of Team 8 stood looking incredibly distressed. Izumo and Kotetsu stood at their post with a depressed loo,.

"Welcome back you guys. It was such a drag without you here. Now who's the old fart?" Shikamaru asked, though he seemed out of it.

"He's Jiraiya. You know that guy Iruka-Sensei told us about in class!"

Everyone else showed a large amount of sickness, something that didn't go unnoticed by the others "What's the matter. You guys are acting like somebody died while we were gone or something!"

After a moments of awkward silence, Hinata finally stepped forward "You see…something happened…

* * *

**(A/N): Cliffhanger no Jutsu! Aren't I evil.**

**Ikō: Great Wall of China Skillet! I always knew you were an asshole, but that's just evil**

**Skillet: Well being buried alive can make an author a bit more then testy!**

**Cedric: Oh get over it you big baby! If your so pissed about it then just fire me already.**

**Skillet: By every means I should fire you… but I won't.**

**Cedric: What!**

**Ikō: WHAT?! But he buried you alive!**

**Skillet: I know that, but his powers still might come in handy to me later on. And besides, I've come up with a more fitting punishment…**

**Cedric: Oh really. What are you going to do to me? I'm immortal remember? **

***Skillet types something up on his tablet and Cedric is suddenly restrained to a bed***

**Cedric: What are you doing?**

**Skillet: Get the pink hair dye Ikō**

**Cedric: WHAT?**

**Ikō: I've been waiting to do this ever since Naruto killed me!**

**Cedric: SOMEONE SAVE ME!**

**Well while Cedric gets his pay check I have a few things I want to say. This will be one of the last chapters before the Chunin Exams Finals, so stick around! And don't worry Iruka's not dead yet. His ultimate fate will be revealed at the very start of next chapter, so you can still vote. But that chapter will take a bit longer to finish. The only reason this one got out so quickly is cause my town got frozen over and school was cancelled. But I think that one might be the best one yet. And the last thing before I go. The explanation for Kakashi getting Enel's devil fruit. When Enel's left the Earth's atmosphere that sent his Devil Fruit back into cycle, in Skypeia. It landed on a doomed cloud which fell back into the sea. And the rest is history!**

**Next Chapter: The Poison of a Vengeful Snake**

**. . .**


	14. The Poison of a Vengeful Snake

**Disclaimer****:**** I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did this chapter wouldn't be out as quickly as it did.**

**Cedric: Oh shut up!**

**Ikō: Awww someone cranky that he looks like Sakura now?**

**Cedric: Shut your trap before I slice you to pieces.**

**Skil****let: Please don't fight you two. Your subplot is almost over so the readers won't see you till next arc. Do you really want them to remember you like this?**

**Cedric: You know I could care less about what mortals think about me. Especially since their the main reason my story got canned after this one rose to popularity. **

**Ikō: Well I for one, will miss making chapterly appearances in this story. So I guess I'll see you all in Arc 2!**

**Cedric: Kissass.**

**Ikō: You wanna go Pinkie?!**

**Skillet: Cut to the next chapter before these two imbeciles kill each other**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 13: The Poison of a Vengeful Snake**

* * *

"You see something happened…when you were gone Naruto-kun." Hinata nervously stuttered, incredibly worried about the bad news she was about to tell the man she loved.

"What, what happened? Did that Sasuke-teme pull anything?"

Kotetsu stood up and nodded to Hinata "Don't worry Hinata, you shouldn't trouble yourself by telling him this. I was there, so I should bear that burden."

"What are you people talking about? Can you just explain what happened to Iruka-Sensei already?"

"Naruto-San, I'm so sorry to tell you this. Last night Iruka was attacked by someone about your age. He was stabbed multiple times in the abdomen, and had his left leg completely severed."

It was at this point Kiba stepped up "Ok we got that, but is he okay?"

"He's going to live if that's what your saying. But the Civillian Council cut the treatment from the schedule, until this morning. But it was too late. I know this is hard for you all to hear, but Iruka's days as a shinobi are over."

Everything went dead silent after that. Though it was clear that everyone on the team was heartbroken, sans Jiraiya who just saddened for the loss, all eyes were on Naruto. He dropped to his knees, and soundly choking up.

Seeing this Hinata came close, but before she could Naruto looked up to the sky, with a look of rage on his tear soaked face "I refuse to accept this! You told me I could surpass you damn it! That's what you wanted. That was your dream, right? Why are you giving up so easily! I can't surpass you if your not a shinobi anymore!"

"Naruto, please calm down!" Shino tried to console his distraught comrade.

"You can't those bastards who did this to you win! Damnit Iruka-Sensei!"

"My eternal rival, I'm sorry"

By this point Naruto could only cry out in misery towards the sky.

"DDDDAAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT"

* * *

Kakashi ran down the staircases of Kûmén Temple. He didn't care how dare he had to run, or how tired he got. The Tobetsku Jonnin had a one track mind on getting to the finals before it was too late. But he stopped dead in his tracks when he made it to the first level of torture.

It was a giant boiling pool, with several mines floating on top of the water. The tormentors of the prisoners their wore skin tight body covering swimsuits and thick goggles, and held red hot tridents.

"So Copycat Ninja, you've finally escaped Danzō's clutches. It's a good thing Konoha has no other political prisoners right now, otherwise we wouldn't be able to play with you!"

"I don't have time for this. Fighting all of these guys at once would take to much time. I hope that this works"

Kakashi focused his anger and energy throughout his body hoping it would cause his devil fruit to react. He managed to turn completely into the same red lightning as before, and dived into the pool, electrocuting everyone in it. Besides him of course.

He reappeared on the other side of the pool and began running down the staircase again. But was incredibly surprised when he was sliced in half by a large blast of wind. However he survived due to his newfound logia powers.

The copycat ninja looked down to a powerful wind lacrima at the bottom. He focused more energy into is body, attempting to transport himself to the other side of the room once again. But this time he was knocked away about midway.

"Welcome to the second level of the Kûmèn Temple Hatake. You've done well to make it this far, but I'm afraid that you won't get past me!" The assaulter who wore a jumpsuit with bat like wings sewn in, said as he glided around the room.

Kakashi gave him a look of irritation, before throwing a Lightuning bolt of his own at the flying Root member, knocking him out of the sky and into the wind lacrima below, shattering it completely,

There was barely anytime for Kakashi to zap himself up to the ledge, and pull up to the exit before the loss of wind momentum sent him crashing to the ground. Kakashi ran further down, and stopped when he saw a giant cannon labeled _Cerberus _in front of him.

"Crap, how could I have forgotten about the Cerberus cannon!?" He thought to himself as the chakra weapon fired upon him with jumbo sized cannon balls. He could tell from their presence that they were laced with Armor Haki, so one blow would be the end of him.

So naturally, he was caught completly off guard when something grabbed him from behind. That soemthing of course was a metal claw, that was also laced with Haki.

Though he tried to break free from the claw with brute strength alone, the claw wouldn't budge as it put him right in front of the mouth of the cannon. After a few minutes of horrible anxiety, the cannon fired out a massive laser, which shot a hole straight through Kakashi's chest, before setting down what the claw thought was his corpse.

Luckliy for Kakashi his Devil Fruit power completely prevented him from getting hurt. With the time he had left Kakashi ran to the mouth of the cannon, and held it open. He could only manage to hold it open for a few seconds, but that was all he needed to sneak in as a lightning bolt, and release a large amount of electricity to completely destroy the cannon from the inside.

"This is starting to get on my nerves. If I keep having to waste my time and energy on this I'll never make it to the finals in time!" Kakashi then entered the massive hole left behind, hoping he could make it through the torture levels of the tower with more ease then before.

* * *

Iruka laid down in his dark hospital room, staring at the stump that used to be his leg. All he could think about was how he fell for such a simple trick. He was ashamed of himself, and was very confused. Being a shinobi was so intertwined with his life, he didn't know what he was going to do now that he could no longer pursue that goal.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he heard the door to his room open "Daddy are you ok" Did the bad guy hurt you bad."

"Of course I am Naifū. I just need a new leg is all."

"Well don't worry daddy cause I'll find the bad guy who beat you up, and I'm gonna beat the crap out of him, cause I'm gonna be an awesome ninja like you and mommy!"

Anko then put her daughter up on her shoulder and reassured her "Sorry kiddo. But I've got dibs on the brat who did this. But don't worry he will go down. Just as soon as an old friend of me and your father shows up."

"You wanted to see men Anko?" Naruto asked as he walked in.

"Simple, I'm guessing you and the rest of your buddies want to get back it whoever did this as much as I do. So I say we work together to find the bastard and kill him, before he tries something like this again! With my knowledge of interrogation, your incredible fighting prowess, and both of our sexy bods, there's no way he'll be able to get the jump on us!"

Naruto stared at her for a moment, as she held her hand out. He gave her a nod before shaking her hand "We better get this done tonight Anko. Don't forget I have the finals tomorrow."

The two vengeful shinobi shook hands as the bystanders looked on. While Naifū looked curious at what was going on, Iruka just looked flat out terrified.

_'I hope Hokage-Sama is ready cause two of the craziest shinobi in Konoha are pissed off and ready to cause a whole lot of trouble'_

"Um daddy. Who's the weirdo that's talking to mommy?"

"He's an old student I taught six years ago and a very close friend of mine. The Cinderface, Roronoa Naruto! He's going to help your mother track down the bad guy!"

Naifū looked at Naruto for a couple seconds before pointing at him "So he's Batman!"

"Well done you figured it out." Naruto said while clapping sarcastically.

"Well if we're done here we've got work to do gaki. Let's move out!"

* * *

For their first course of action Naruto and Anko began searching around the transponder snail booth where he was attacked "Alright gaki, your good at tracking people can you find anything around here that might hint towards our mystery man's identity!"

Naruto unsheathed Kurama around the crime scene as if doing a scan for DNA "There's nothing here that we could actually use to find him, just ink. Whoever he is, this guy is really good at covering his tracks. Sounds like a Root member to me."

"We don't know. It could have easily been one of the Akatsuki."

"Not really. I've fought them before, and the only ones strong enough to do this kind of damage to Iruka are the chairman, and most of them are in their mid 20's. If the guy who did this was my age, then they'd be in their late teens. So it's either a Root ANBU or the Uchiha-teme, in which case the Council will just cover his ass."

"As much as I want to pin it on that little bastard, he doesn't match the description Iruka gave us. But then again he could have used a transformation jutsu!"

"Either way we'll need some more evidence to actually get a good lead on him. I think we should get some eyewitness reports." Naruto regretted that statement when he realized that there was only one store that was open this late. One of the one's that always kicked him out.

The pair of maelstrom bringing shinobi walked into the shop, albeit reluctantly, while the shopkeeper glared at the swordsman intensely "I thought I told you your kind didn't belong here demon!"

"I'm not here to buy anything dumbass. Me and Anko are investigating the attempted murder of ex-shinobi and Academy teacher Iruka Umino that took place last night, and your the only one who's shop is open long to have actually seen the attack. So tell me everything you know about this guy. What kind of jutsu he used, what was his weapon of choice. Don't bother telling me what he looked like though. Iruka already gave us that description."

"I think it's clear that there's only one person in this village who'd stoop that low. You! So stop playing innocent demon, we all know you tried to murder that man so stop playing innocent and fess up!" The shopkeeper slandered the swordsman in front of him.

Killing intent leaked out at first, but Naruto regained his cool, and argued back "I'd hate to disappoint you idiot, but I have an alibi. I was on a mission to a town called Īsuki Pīku, so I couldn't have committed the murder since I wasn't even town!"

"Well, maybe I did see something, but I can't really remember anything about it. Maybe the Snake-Whore showing me a bit more of her chest will refresh my memory!"

Directly after he said that, the man's expression turned from perverse to scared senseless when he found his sleeve pinned to the counter by the Yamakawa-ō. But it wasn't Naruto's doing as you might expect but Anko.

"How dare you act so disgraceful towards a married woman you bastard. We were going to just ask you what you saw and move on with that information. But since you've decided to give us trouble we'll do it the fun way!"

"You can't do anything to me Snake-Whore. I have the information you need remember!"

"We can work around it if we need to. Now this is the least dangerous of my friend's swords. The Shodai Kitetsu he has at his side is cursed to kill. And his third one Kurama has the spirit and chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed inside it's blade."

Anko then let a snake come from her snake and then began explaining the interegation again "This is Kanchome. She'll be watching your movements to tell if your lying to me. For every question you don't answer honestly another sword goes in before the Kyuubi gets to feed on your soul!"

"ALRIGHT! I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! BEFORE IRUKA SHOWED UP THERE WAS DARK HAIRED GAKI IN AN ANBU UNIFORM WHO DREW A COPY OF HIMSELF. THEN WHEN IRUKA SHOWED UP HE AND THE COPY HID UNTIL HE WAS INSIDE THE BOOTH TO SEND THE COPY OUT AND HIDE BEHIND THE PHONE BOOTH! ONCE IRUKA HAD KILLED THE COPY HE CAME AND ATTACKED HIM WITH A TANTO! THAT'S WHEN KOTETSU AND IZUMO CHASED HIM OFF!"

"Anything else teme?"

"THAT'S ALL I KNOW I SWEAR! PLEASE JUST LET ME GO!"

Naruto pulled the Yamakawa-ō from his shirt and turned to his partner "Well if that's all we know, the next we should do is go to Jiji-Sama and find someone that fits his profile."

Naruto then turned to a crimson red jacket on one of the racks, that was similar to the blue one that Jiraiya had destroyed "I like this jacket, I'm taking it."

Both stepped out of the store and began heading toward the capital building but not before Anko gave something she very rarely gave. A compliment.

"Nice job of making that pervert piss himself back there! Maybe after you beat the shit out of Neji tomorrow you could become the head of the interregation unit with me. I'm sure Ibiki would be happy about that legacy!"

"I'm leaving my options open. By the way how'd you know I sealed the Kyuubi into the Kurama, or how the Shodai Kitetsu was cursed? I don't that recall telling you that?"

"Oh you mean back there? I was just bluffing!"

* * *

Up in the capital building of Konoha, Sarutobi was in his office, once again battling his arch enemy. Paperwork. Though he kept a stoic expression, he was secretly begging inside for soemthing to break the boredom, at least till the Chunin Exams began the next day.

The old man got his wish, when the door to his office was blown off of its hinges for the third time in a month, flying out the window, where it flew into the stands of a nearby salesman.

"My cabbages!"

It didn't surprise him in the slightest to see that Naruto and Anko were on the other side of the carnage "Honestly Naruto, how am I supposed to get this village into a better state, if I have to blow part of the fund on a new door everytime you come to visit me?"

"I don't know, maybe grow a pair and don't let those pricks on the Council push you around."

"I'm well aware of how corrupt the Civilian Council is Naruto. Needless to say there will be a day when the Will of Fire will ignite again, and the Hokage will no longer be a figurehead. I just hope I'll live to see that day. Now let's cut to the chase, why are you two here?"

"We think we have a solid amount of info on the guy who killed my hubby. All we need is a profile on him and we'll have everything we need to bring him down!" Anko explained the situation.

"Alright then. I'll need the information you've gathered and I can find his profile."

Naruto began recalling once he got the cue "He's about my age, with short straight blac hair, pale skin in a black and red ANBU uniform. He uses a tantō as a weapon, and uses chakra paper and fuinjutsu to bring his drawings to life."

"If that's all the information you have on him, just give a moment to find a file that matches." The old man walked up to the sole cabinet, and focused chakra into his hand.

**"Cabinet no Jutsu! Open to the file I'm thinking of!"**

The filing cabinet slingshot open along with its contents, but it wasn't the file containing the matching information as the perpetrator. But multiple volumes of the famed Icha Icha series, much to Naruto's shock, Anko's amusement, and to the embaressment of the Sandaime.

"Wrong Cabinet!"

The Sandaime tried again but this time when it shot open, it revealed a single file that read on the tab and inside the folder.

_Sai Tesaki_

_Rank: ANBU_

_Hair: Black_

_Eye: Onyx_

_Height: 172 cm_

_Weight: 53 kg_

_Blood Type: A_

_Fighting Style: Ink_

_Weapon: Tantō_

"Well it looks like we've found our man! Now all you have to do is figure just how your going to find him. ANBU are typically very hard to track." Sarutobi said when he handed them the file.

As they walked out Naruto read through the file, before snapping it shut at its spine "So he's one of Danzō's lackeys. I really shouldn't be surprised."

"Well look at this way gaki, now we can easily catch him and send him to hell. Or Heaven depending on if Bandages turned him into a vegetable or not."

"Tell me. How are we going to catch him when we have no idea of his whereabouts?" Naruto asked.

"Simple. We both know what a persistent mule Danzō is. How else do you think he keeps such a grip on this hole's government? So when he realizes that Sai didn't finish the job he'll send him back. That's when we take him out! All you have to do, is use that big brain of yours to come up with a plan!"

Naruto nodded as he scratched his head, developing a plan to draw Sai into their trap.

* * *

Kakashi had kept running for hours. So far the levels after the skirmish with the Cerberus cannon, ranged from large crevices of muck, large crushing weights, an even larger sea of sharks and torturers, blazing tombs, a stereotypical medical torture room, and even being frozen in ice.

But eventually he had used his new powers to make it to the tournament room, where the preliminaries took place "Alright your almost there Kakashi. Just a little more and you'll be there in no time!"

"So you made it this far. Impressive, but that's why I've been sent here to stop you before you reach Fū."

He turned around to see that a man with messy black hair, a jet black jumpsuit and small lenses that made his eyes invisible.

"Torune Aburame. From what I can tell you were one of the strongest, from a young age, until Danzō incorporated you into his program, Root. But unlike your parter Fū, you wouldn't cooperate with what he planned, so he had your personality wiped clean to become a human weapon."

"That is correct Kakashi Hatake. And I am afraid that while I personally have nothing against you, it is my mission to completley eliminate you in order to keep the secrecy of the Santatsu Foundation in check." Torune explained to his new opponent.

In immediate response, Kakashi did multiple handsigns and unleashed a massive ball of fire on the Aburame who swiftly evaded and unleashed a massive wave of poisonous gas in response.

**"Poison Sphere Jutsu"**

**"Wind Style: Gale Palm"**

The poison sphere that flowed out of his enemy's sleeved. Torune let his kikachū out in order to fight for him. Kakashi threw a hound shaped lighting bolt out from his palm, though from a jutsu not from his Devil Fruit.

**"Lightning Style: Tracking Fang Beast"**

Both Torune and the bugs instinctivly avoided the attack before Torune cloned himself and the bugs, creating multiple swarms of bugs for Kakashi to fight. Exhausted and irritated by this point, Kakashi decided to end the fight quickly by charging up one of his most powerful attacks.

**"Lightning Cutter"**

He swung the attach around the room, which either killed or scared away the bugs surrounding him. Once there was a big enough space open, Kakashi charged at Torune with his Lightning Cutter ready and stabbed him through the heart.

Or at least he thought it was his heart.

To Kakashi's suprise the clone merely blackened and disintegrate into another swarm of bugs "Shit, a bug clone! And I walked right into it!"

The insects ensnared him almost immediately after they had revealed themselves, and began covering his entire body and lifting him off of the ground. It was then that Torune revealed himself.

"It appears I have outwitted you Hatake-San. I expected more from an ex-ANBU captain like yourself."

Kakashi glowered at his opponent, as the bugs covered more and more of his body. With very little time left before he suffocated to death, Kakashi decide to use his last resort.

**"Laxus: Discharge"**

Like a human bug zapper, Kakashi released a large quantity of red electricity from his body, killing all of the surrounding him. Now free and on the ground Kakashi fired one final attack, before Torune had time to counter.

**"Water Style: Shark Bullet"**

Kakashi fired the fish shaped wall of water at his opponent, knocking him back into the tile behind. Sure he had won, Kakashi gave a small sigh of relief. But to his surprise Torune still stood when the dust cleared, albeit incredibly injured.

"I have to admit, your much stronger then I expected you to be. But I will complete the mission Danzō-Sama has placed upon-"

**"Hirashin"**

In less than a second Torune was dead with an ANBU tantō through his head and Cat, the current captain of the ANBU Black Ops behind him.

"The Root are loyal to Danzō. But the ANBU Black Ops, are loyal to you Kakashi-san." Cat told his old friend stoicly.

"Wait! How do you now the Hirashin? There's only one man who should be able to use it, and he died 18 years ago!"

The ANBU gave a chuckle as he took off his mask revealing his true face. One that in no way Kakashi could prepare for seeing.

"Minato-Sensei?"

"I'm not really surprised that you picked up on that hint Kakashi. While Obito was my favorite student, you were always the sharpest. I only have this to ask of you Kakashi. Please don't tell Naruto." With that Minato dissapeared in a flash of yellow light one again.

Though the shock of the revelation had made him unable to move for a few moments Kakashi quickly regained focus and continued with his quest.

Breaking down the doors, Kakashi ran out of Kûmén Temple, free for the first time in years. Not stopping for a second, Kakashi sped off into the darkness with only one goal in mind. Frying every member of The Santatsu Foundation into a crisp.

* * *

In the Land of Fire National Hospital a shadow holding a pad and tantō walked through it's halls. He stopped once he came up to the room with the number 808.

Sai creeped in while arming himself with his tantō. When he saw the lump under the covers move, the Root member quickly ducked under the bed. Once he was sure Iruka had fallen back asleep, Sai slowly creeped back up from under the bed, like a monster from a children's book, and prepared to stab him through the heart.

"I bet you weren't expecting me to come back."

But what Sai wasn't expecting was for a fist to slam itself straight into his gut and into the wall of the hospital. Iruka stood up, with a leg that shouldn't still be there, before in a flash of smoke he reverted back into Naruto.

"That's odd. Iruka-kun was supposed to be in this room. But there's no evidence that he was ever here" Sai said confused.

"Allow me to explain. We figured you'd use the hospital records to find Iruka's room and try to finish the job. So all we had to do is switch Iruka's room number with a vacant room, and wait here for to show up. Right now Iruka's in his room sleeping like a baby with Chouji and Lee guarding him! While your going down!" Naruto explained while holding up a screwdriver.

"Interesting strategy Roronoa-kun. Are you sure your not Batman-kun?" Sai lightly teased him before he used his tantō to deflect a blow from the Yamakawa-ō.

With the small window of time he had Sai shushined away, hoping to escape the wrathful swordsman. Naruto put his new red hood up, like his brother's bandanna and began chasing after him, sensing him up on the roof.

Naruto swung out the window and ran up the side of the roof. When he made it up to the top, he had to defend against multiple hawk drawings Sai had sent after him. This proved to be even more difficult as the birds had exploding tags on their tails.

After he had gotten away from the explosions that the birds had created, Naruto was face to face with Sai. But Sai had prepared for this confrontation and while Naruto was occupied had drawn a giant katana from the ink.

The swordsman clenched his teeth together from the unnerving sight of the sword, and jumped out of the way as Sai swung down, leaving a large slice mark in the gravel roof. Naruto ended up on the defensive with all three swords blocking Sai's large weapon.

Eventually Naruto managed to sweep it away and prepared to go on the offensive with his own attack, preparing a position of an Onigiri attack, but this time a phantom like entity appeared behind him.

**"Enbima Yonezu Onigiri"**

The large ghost swooped down into Sai, hitting the Shotatsu directly. When the dust from the rubble blew away, the large sword he was using for combat had completley evaporated, but he used the cover to fire several shuriken at Naruto, easily deflecting them.

That's when a large tiger grabbed Naruto from behind and began pulling at him down at a rapid pace.

**"Sealing Art: Staring Tiger Bullet Vision"**

Sai then stepped out of the smoke smirking slightly, but it was still notable that there was no emotion coming out of him "If your wondering what' showing on, while you were distracted deflecting those shuriken, I took the liberty of sliding a scroll where you were standing. That specific scroll contains a tiger that I drew previously, that will drag you down into the scroll with it. I have to say it's been fun Roronoa-kun."

As he struggled to break free from the tiger's grasp, Naruto could only think to himself _'Shit! How could I have been so foolish?'_

But Naruto then felt everything ease up around him as he could move again. The tiger had completely vanished. Naruto looked up to see that Kanchome had sprung to bite Sai in the neck from Anko's sleeve.

"Gaki, quickly! Finish the bastard off."

When he got his focus back Naruto immediately charged for Sai with his swords pointing towards him, drawing them back and stabbing them with great impact trough the chest and heart, as well as slicing through his chest, defeating the emotionless artist.

**"Cattle Demon: Brave Hoof"**

Now with the fatal wound, Sai fell back breathing heavily and bleeding from the mouth with multiple holes in his choice. Naruto stood over him with a look of victory on his face, while Anko praised Kanchome for a job well done.

As his breathing grew fainter and fainter more emotion came to Sai's face he rasped the his final words _"Thank you for freeing me from this curse. If you ever find Shin, tell him Sai will look forward to seeing him again, once the Asura falls into good hands."_

"Wait. Shin? Asura? What the hell was he talking about?" Naruto asked to himself as Anko patted him on the back.

"Well, we do know that Danzō had him under that emotional sealing jutsu. Guess he was just talking about his life before he got turned into a vegetable."

"I guess that in a way, he was just another victim of Danzō-teme's greedy ass. Well I make a vow that I won't stop until everything that bastard has been planning crumbles under my heel!"

"Nice idea, gaki. But you might want to put that on hold for a while. Cause you've got big things coming tommorow!"

It was at this point that Naruto realized that the finals to the Chuni Exams took place in 10 hours. And he was wide awake in the middle of the night, on the other end of town from where he lived. With a look on his face that said "Oh shit" Naruto charged of to his apartment as fast as he could, under the light of the moon.

Once he was out of sight Anko grinned to herself and said "I've got a good feeling about that kid, He better kick Nej's ass tommorow, or Danzō will be the least of his worries"

* * *

It has about 11:00 am in Konaha Shinobi Fighting Arena, which had a large gray plastic flood.. In the middle of the stadium stood Genma Shiranui, who looked highly uninterested at the moment. On the two sides of the arena were two steel doors, one red and one blue. Over the doors and spectators hung giant transponder snail jumbo-trons.

Sitting inside of the stands were multiple nobles, barons, and even a few high ranking shinobi from other lands. Up in the leader's box sat the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mizukage, Mei Terumi, the Tsuchikage, Onoki, the Raikage, A, the "Kazekage", Orochimaru, and marine Vice Admiral Momonga.

Nearly all of the rookies that didn't make it to this phase were giving their commentary. Kiba, Hinata, Ino, Chouji, Tenten, Lee, and last but definetly least Sakura, for the most part in different places

"This is going to so exciting! I can't wait to see Shikamaru-San and Naruto-San teach their opponents a lesson!" Ino voiced her opinion.

"Please Ino-pig, you don't honestly think Naruto-Baka actually stands a chance against Neji do you. He's a genius just like Sasuke-kun. He'll totally kill him. Everything about Zoro has just been a lie by Naruto-baka to make himself look cooler than Sasuke-kun."

"Oh really Forehead. Then explain the wanted posters!"

Unable to come up with a reasonable arguement, Sakura just sat back down and pouted, muttering soemthing about "how her Sasuke-kun is the greatest and Naruto is just a Baka".

Further up into the stands Lee and Guy were rooting for Naruto rather vocally by wearing traditional kimono, banging on a paper drum and preaching of the power of youth, much to Tenten's extreme embaressment.

Hinata, who was sitting close by with Kiba whispered into her flustered friend's ear "Don't be ashamed Tenten-San. They may be doing it a bit overzealously but their hearts in the right place."

"Well if you ask me, I don't think their being overzealous enough!" Kiba said, standing up from his seat revealing himself to be wearing a t-shirt with Naruto's wanted poster on it.

"Um Kiba, where did you get that shirt?"

"That's nothing wait till you see what I got in the back!" He turned around to show an enlarged picture of Neji with a large red X over it.

Before his out of character behavior could be referenced any further, the stands went silent as Genma began taking "As you all likely now from the pamphlets you've been given, the remaining genin include, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, Kankuro Sabaku, Shikamaru Nara, Gaara Sabaku, Roronoa Naruto, and Temari Sabaku. About an hour ago we privately interviewed each contestant, with the exception of Sasuke Uchiha, due to his late arrival."

_'Special treatment as always'_

"We will know play the tapes of these interviews." Genma said as he pulled out a remote and pressed a button towards the jumbotron.

**Roronoa Naruto:**

_"Who I'd want to fight the least? Tough one, but probably Shikamaru or Shino. Their smarts could prove to be a large pain in the neck. Who I'd want to fight the most? That's easy, Sasuke-teme and Neji-teme. I'd love to take them down a few pegs."_

**Shikamaru Nara:**

_"I'd want to fight that puppet guy, Kankuro. His attacks look the easiest to work around; everyone else would be way to troublesome. Especially Naruto."_

**Shino Aburame:**

_"I would want to fight Roronoa Naruto the most. I think it would be an interesting fight. I definetly don't want to fight Gaara. He's way to strong for me."_

**Kankuro Sabaku: **

_"It would be pretty great for my rep back home in Suna to fight Cinderface or Sasuke. But you can keep Gaara as far away from me as possible"_

**Gaara Sabaku:**

_"Mother wants the blood of Uchiha and Roronoa. But she doesn't want the blood of Kankuro or Temari."_

**Neji Hyuga:**

_"The one I would want to fight the most would be Sasuke Uchiha. The ones who I don't want to fight are Roronoa Naruto and Shikamaru Nara. Their both just failures who aren't worth my time.__Unfortunately though it appears I don't have a choice."_

**Temari Sabaku: **

_"I want to fight Shikamaru Naru. He's a really good strategist and actually kind of cute. But I definetly don't want to fight Gaara, for reasons I'd rather not say."_

The jumbotron then went completly static, as everyone then turned their attention back to Genma who was currently clearing his throat. Up in the contestants box, Kankuro was laughing is ass off, while Shikamaru and Temari backed as far away from each other as possible, incredibly embarrassed

_'Stupid proctor. I thought that interview was completley confidential.'_

Finally, Genma finished clearing his throat and to the shock of pretty much everybody, began speaking in a booming western voice "Now let's get this started! I am Genmdowna Shiranui, and will be the proctor and announcer for the final lever of the Chunin Exams!"

The audience broke into a loud and excited applause, while Hayate pointed towards the blue side of the stadium.

"In the blue corner, we have a super ballsy swordsman who's sure to slice you into pieces if you talk smack to him. Gathering a 50,000,000 beri bounty by allying himself with the Straw Hat Pirates, and trained with Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro himself! He's big! He's bad! He'll kick you while your down and dance on your grave! Presenting the Cinderface, Roronoa Naruto!"

The large steel doors opened up to reveal Naruto walking out looking determined as all hell, despite the fact that a majority from Konoha was booing him and throwing garbage, including Sakura.

"And in the red corner, he's a Hyuga clan prodigy, who's bound by fate and will do anything to win, even beat the crap out of his cousin! With his spectacular Byakugan he palmed his way through th exams, but will he be able to take on his rival in the biggest grudge match of the Chunin Exams? Presenting, Neji Hyuga."

From the doors of the red corner Neji walked out to a massive applause, looking as smug as ever, some spectators even saying soemthing along the lines of "slay the demon Hyuga!"

Once both of them were in the center Naruto placed his hood up and armed himself, while Neji simply said "I don't know why you bothered to show up. You cannot fight me or fate."

"Now before we begin there's soemthing you should now. After each round of matches the landscape changes randomly as the matches go on. Now we'll pick the landscape for yours."

Genma pressed the button on the remote to reveal a circle with all five elements on them as a light flashed around each one before on wind. The landscape around him then began changing as grass grew around them and a bright sun appeared in the sky.

"This is the wind arena? I was expecting something a bit more hectic to be perfectly honest." Naruto said aloud before staring Neji in the eyes.

"I will give you one more chance to surrender before we begin. This match is foolish as we all know who the victor will be."

"Don't try to avoid the beating that's coming to you Neji-teme! I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Hinata!"

Neji grinded his teeth together from annoyance at Naruto's annoyance as the gentle breeze blew around them. When he was sure both contestants were ready, Genma finally called.

"Round one of the Chunin Exam Finals: Roronoa Naruto vs. Neji Hyuga. Begin!"

* * *

**(A/N): And thus we enter the climax of the arc! For those of you wondering how the hell Minato is still alive or why he didn't watch over Naruto to begin with, that will be explained in the next arc after this one. By the way, now that Cedric and Ikō are done for the arc, I'm going to have small omakes at the end of each chapter. If you want to submit an idea for one, do so in a review. And more small announcement, now that Sai's subplot has come and gone it's time for the Devil Fruit contest! I'm pretty sure most have forgotten by this point but the details are back in "The Madness of Sasuke Uchiha". The contest is over now, and the winners will be announced next chapter. However I didn't get as many as I'd hoped so the poll will be a bit smaller. Now that the fight between Naruto and Neji has begun what will happen? Well you'll have to read next time to find out. By the way don't expect all chapters to come out as soon as this one. The only reason it did is because of all the snow days my school got.**

**Next Chapter: 180****Vision: Find the Blind Spot**

**. . .**


	15. 360 Vision: Find the Blindspot!

**Disclaimer:** **don't own Naruto or One Piece. If you think I do then you should probably seek help.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 14: 360° Vision: Find The Blindspot**

* * *

"Round one of the Chunin Exam Finals: Roronoa Naruto vs. Neji Hyuga. Begin!"

Neji immediately began by attempting to strike Naruto in the heart, but his attack was rapidly deflected, forcing Neji onto the defensive from the three swords being swung at him. This continued for about 30 seconds until Naruto swept the hand he was defending with out of the way and delivering the first blow.

While Neji was wincing from the pain of the slash, Naruto jumped up into the air and began raining slashes down onto the Hyuga everyone of which slammed down onto him.

**"Karasuma Gari!"**

Naruto landed back onto the ground barely breaking a sweat, while Neji was breathing heavily _'How the hell is he this fast? And how is he sending his slashes at me through the air? When he fought Kiba his katana had to make contact! This is impossible!'_

"What's the matter Neji-teme. Afraid of the thought that I might actually be stronger than you?"

In immediate response to his opponent's taunting Neji gathered a large quantity of his chakra into his hand and swung it Naruto, though the attack was defended by all three of his opponents swords.

**"Gentle Fist: One Body Blow"**

Despite the defense not faltering, the blow was strong enough to send Naruto back several feet, putting him back on the defensive.

Up in the stands, everyone was filled to the brim with anxiety, as unlike most were expecting there was no clear superior. As a result of this crossroads many of the daimyo and nobles began placing wagers on either Naruto or Neji, depending on which style they thought was stronger, or who was better with their respective ways of attack.

"Are you done with your little dance routine yet Hyuga? Cause if that's the case I'll need to kick your ass!"

Naruto once again sepearated his hands with the swords in his hand, and charged at him with Kurama in his mouth. Neji evaded the attack by flipping away but when he hit ground he realized another shower of attacks were coming his way.

**"Karasuma Gari"**

**"Kaiten"**

The slashes coming down onto Neji were instantly disspeled as he spun 360° sphere of chakra that came off the tips of his fingers. Neji smirked as he saw a surprised look,on Naruto's face as his attack was completely negated.

"Now you've seen the basis of all the Hyuga clan justu. The Kaiten! A complete shield that uses the 360° vision of the Byakugan to it's fullest extent. Do you now see why you cannot win against me? All of your attacks will be wiped off the face of the earth by my Kaiten."

The Konoha side of the stadium cheered as they thought Neji had finally gained the upper hand in the match. Somewhere else in the stands Hiashi pointed out to his younger daughter "Watch carefully Hanabi. While Cinderface is very adapt in kenjutsu, Neji is one of the strongest shinobi the Hyuga clan has. There is no doubt in my mind he will win this fight."

To the surprise of everyone in the audience though, Naruto dropped his shocked expression and began howling with laughter "Are you serious Neji-teme? Of course I knew about those ballerina twirls you fight with! I've been trying to get you to use it this entire time! And now that I have, all I need to do, is cut right through it!"

"You fool! The Kaiten is a wall of pure chakra, you can't possibly cut through it. It's impenetrable!"

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to find a way to make it through. Every shield has a crack Neji-teme."

Neji grinded his teeth as he charged at him again intending to use another of the Hyuga's strongest techniques to obliterate his enemy. Before he could though Naruto countered with his own attack before Neji could react.

**"Ittoruyu: Lion's Song"**

The attack brought Neji to his knees, with a large amount of blood coming from his mouth and the wound left behind by the attack. As the Hyuga prodigy stood up, the Konoha audience around him booed Naruto as he was actually winning the fight, contrary to what most of them believed should happen.

"Boo! Stay down demon, I bet good money on Hyuga-sama and I'm not going to let you ruin it for me!"

Kiba took immediate offense to this man's statement and stood up to argue "What the hell are you talking about? Naruto has every right to kick that bastards ass! And he will!"

"Be quiet you demon loving sack of shit! I'll say whatever the hell I want about that disgrace to this village and your dumbass can't stop me!"

"Come on Akamaru! Let's teach this asshole a lesson!"

As the one-sided scuffle unfolded in the stands, Lee and Gai resumed their cheering.

"Go Naruto! Do what I could not and prove you are stronger than Neji!"

"The power of youth is on your side!"

Tenten sighed at her teammates eccentricity before turning her attention back to fight at hand _'As much as I want Naruto to win this, Neji still hasn't shown the true extent of his power with the Byakugan. But Naruto is still a wild card. I have a feeling we haven't seen the full extent of his __power after training with Zoro and that weirdo with the sparkly tux. It's anyone's game by this point!'_

"So this is the power of your Jinchuriki Hokage-Sama. Though his kind are a particularly bad memory for the people of Kiri, he is pretty sexy. I'm a bit jealous of that Hyuga-hime you told us about."

"Don't speak so deviantly of him Mizukage-Sama. Powerful or not, he's still a criminal. He's just lucky Sarutobi convinced me not to arrest him for the time being."

"Either way, I do hope that we'll be able to s-see him and my s-son do battle, if S-Sasuke does-sn't s-show in time."

Back down in the arena Neji had finally regained his breath and moved into a stance familiar to most shinobi "It is time for you to see how foolish you were to defy fate. This is the final technique I will use in this fight. The rest of my techniques I will use on either Sasuke or Gaara."

"Well then, hit me with your best shot!"

Naruto sheathed all three of of his swords and held is arms out, much like he did during his previous battle against Kiba. Neji felt his blood boil once again at seeing Naruto's lax behavior, and immediately flowed from his stance into his attack.

**"Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms"**

The audience looked on as Neji riddled Naruto with his strikes, foreigners and his supporters with nervousness, but a majority of the Konoha spectators with glee as it appeared the Jinchuriki was suffering defeat at the hands of the Hyuga prodigy.

"It's all over now. That's one of the jutsu the Hyuga are renowned for. Even if Naruto-Baka is still standing after this he won't be able to pull off a single attack!"

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch Sakura. If I know the Naruto from now and not the one from six years ago you have so much trouble forgetting, he'll pull something out."

"What the hell is he doing just standing there? Neji's going to kill him if he just waits there." Kiba wondered aloud with his defeated opponent behind him.

"He's waiting for him to stop Kiba-kun. Though it doesn't look like it, Neji made a fatal flaw in not only underestimating Naruto-kun, but completely misunderstanding his style of attack and its relationship with chakra."

This is when Gai spoke up "She's right. While I don't want to talk down to one of my students, if Neji keeps using his smaller techniques on Naruto, expecting them to work, then there's no way he can win this fight."

Once Neji was done was done striking Naruto, he moved out of the stance standing in front of the bruised man with a victorious smirk as the audience cheered around him, thinking Naruto had been defeated.

But to almost everyone's surprise Naruto began chortling silently before unsheathing all of his swords and attacking Neji even faster than before.

"What the hell is going on? You shouldn't be able to even attempt to attack me after I blocked all of your chakra points!"

"Yeah, it hurt like a bitch. But your the dumbest genius ever if you think I was using my chakra during Santoryu. This is my own power and you just wasted your energy on an attack that won't deter me at all!"

Back up in the stands Hinata began explaining to the others who couldn't see the chakra network "At this rate Neji's arrogance and condescending towards Naruto-kun will be his downfall. If he'd paid attention while blocking his chakra, he'd have noticed that it would be pointless. If he doesn't use his actual power against Naruto he'll go down as easily as Kiba-kun"

"Can we please not talk about that?"

"Go Batman! Beat up the mean ponytail man!" Naifū said as she watched the match in her mother's lap.

Naruto continuously backed the nervous and confused Hyuga around the stadium as he blocked Naruto's strikes with his gentle fist, but this became harder as his arms lost energy and Naruto sped up his attacks.

**"Kaiten"**

After being blown back Neji's rotation, Naruto got back into stance. But to his surprise Neji simply stood there in one place instead of taking the chance to attack.

"I can't believe that I'm being forced to use my high level techniques on a failure like you! But before I finish this, I will tell of why fate dictates everything. The history of blood in the Hyuga clan."

"Umm…As much as I'd love to hear your little super villain backstory, we're kind of in the middle of a fight, so can this wait till later?"

**"Eight Trigram: Mountain Crusher"**

Neji once again struck Naruto while his guard was down, but this time was different as the arm that was struck instantly lost all feeling the sword that was being held in its grasp, dropped to the ground.

"That was the mountain crusher. It has all the power of the 64 palms but is much quicker acting. Now that I know that blocking your chakra points won't work, I'll just destroy your nerves. That way you can't move to fight back, and I can stop your heart with ease."

"Oh can it Girl Hair-teme! If you think I'm gonna go down that easily then you've just been sleeping for the entire match! And judging by how weak your attacks were before, that's probably the case."

Neji had decided to ignore Naruto's latest quip to stop himself from attacking him, as he undid his forehead protector, to reveal a thin mark on his forehead. The curse mark was a green manji with cane like marks on each side, both facing opposite sides upwards.

"Before the reaper comes for you today, I will tell you of the Hyuga's tale of restraint. Of the caged bird seal!"

"Continue."

"For generations the main family of the Hyuga clan has branded the branch family withy this curse mark. You see, they do this to keep us in line, as it is our duty to respect the main family, serve them. Protect them. So when we disobey they activate the Jutsu that destroys our brain cells, and will eventually kill us if the jutsu is not released. The seal also acts as a failsafe, as when we die our Byakugan will be sealed away to protect from grave robbers."

After he finished speaking an uncomfortable silence filled the arena, mostly in the center where the battle took place. This was because even in the nosebleed seats, one could feel the seething rage coming off of Naruto's body.

"_So let me get this straight. Your branch family's duty is to serve the main one. But despite this you actively tired to KILL a member of the main family?_ WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU JUST PROVED YOURSELF WRONG, YOU HYPOCRITE! YOU PREACH ON AND ON ABOUT HOW IF YOU SUCK YOUR ALWAYS GOING TO SUCK, CAUSE YOU WERE BORN IN A DIFFERENT BRANCH OF THE FAMILY TREE, YET IT'S PERFECTLY FINE IF YOU BEAT A MAIN BRANCH MEMBER TO A BLOODY PULP. THAT MAKES NO SENSE. YOU ARE THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITE I'VE EVER MET!"

"I didn't expect you to understand. After all you are in love with her! As far as I'm concerned that bitch is responsible for the death of my father."

"And now your going to tell me how right?"

"It happened 15 years ago!" Neji once again began speaking.

"Would somebody press the fast forward button on this imbecile!"

* * *

_**"Flashback no Jutsu!"**_

Konoha was in an uproar from the festival around them and everyone who could attend was attending. This was because of years of war and hostility with Kumogakure, the two Kage's of their respective villages were able to come up with a peace treaty.

And the one who came to officiate the peace treaty himself, Kaito Hayashi. Only one clan didn't attend. The Hyuga clan, as they were celebrating the third birthday of their current heir to the head of the clan, Hinata Hyuga.

The aforementioned heir of the clan hid under a willow tree in her clan's grounds. The young girl was visibly nervous about the event. That is until someone slightly older approached her directly.

"Hinata-Sama what are you doing out here all by yourself? Your the star of the show today! Everybody is wanting to see you so why don't you put a smile on your face and go say hi to everyone!"

"I can't Neji! Nearly everyone in our clan will be watching me and I really don't want to screw up!"

"Honestly, Hinata-Sama you can't sweat this stuff. You don't need to worry about impressing people around since your a bigshot. People will automatically be impressed! You aren't a stinky loser like me!"

"But you aren't a stinky loser! Your the hardest working person in this clan."

"Well until I make the system of this clan different I will be compared to people like you and Hiashi-ojisan. But mark my words I will make the way of this clan different, so I won't have to be a servant to those stuffy old farts the rest of my life!"

That's when a man who looked like an adult version of Neji with a bandage around his head approached the two children with an incredibly worried expression "Neji what are you doing here? I thought I told you to hide before The Grand Elder finds you!"

"Sorry Otou-san. I just wanted to say good luck to Hinata before her big ceremony today." Neji apoligized looking a bit embarresed.

"She's not part of the ceremony! That's just a front. We need to get you out of here before."

"Before what Hizashi?"

The group turned around to see that a group from the main branch including the Grand Elder had caught them from behind "You know today is the day your son is to be branded with the Caged Bird Seal. There's nothing you can do to stop us so just give us the gaki so we can move on with the greetings."

"No! I won't let you take my son you pompous bastards." Hizashi said while slipping into the Hyuga's fighting stance.

"Stubborn aren't we?" The Grand Elder said as he activated the seal on Hizashi's forehead. Moments after, the seal began glowing neon and Hizashi began writhing in agony as his brain cells were destroyed.

The toddler immediately ran to his father's defense and kicked the man who activated the seal in the balls "Stay away from my daddy you jerk!"

"Why you little brat! Byron, Shiri! Hold the little branch rugrat down while I teach him what happens when the slave disobey's the master!"

The two members of the main branch held Neji down as the Grand Elder began attacking with gentle fist strikes on his face an chest causing incredible pain to the young child. Hinata tried to order them to stop but her mouth was covered and she was restrained by the last one.

"Now do you get it? Your the servant. We're the master. You be a good little slave and obey us!" Neji simply spat in his face once again and yelled into his face.

"Shut the hell up you old fart! You aren't my master! The only one who can tell me what to do is myself!"

At this new act of defiance the Hyuga Elder pulled out a kunai and began focusing chakra into it. The weapon then began showing a bright green tint at the very tip of its sharp black blade.

"That's it. Forget the ceremony I'm placing the seal on you right here, right now!" The Hyuga leader then began drawing the seal onto Neji's forehead as he screamed in agony no one his age should feel.

When he had finally finished completing the Jutsu, he activated the seal with sadistic pleasure. He only stopped for a moment when he felt a judgemental hand placed on his shoulder.

"Elder Noburu, what are you doing?" An absolutely livid Hiashi said as he turned around the older man.

"Simple Hiashi. I am teaching this little shit what happens when someone from the side branch, disobeys someone from the main branch."

"He's just a child! Neji is too young to truly be a servant to our family. Please just let him go." Hiashi asked of his ruler.

"Are you demanding something of me? You seem to be forgetting that I am still the leader of this clan. I can easily revoke your title as heir and give it to someone who will listen to me- I mean do what is best for the clan."

Not wanting to jeaprodize his position as heir to the throne of his clan, Hiashi quickly apologized to his master. Unfortunately Noburu felt he needed a little more punishment "I'm afraid saying sorry isn't going to be good enough for me. If you truly want to prove your loyalty then activate Neji's cursed seal. Otherwise I'll just have to find a new heir!"

Hiashi stood their compleltely silent for a few moments before giving his nephew a remorseful look and activating his cursed seal, once again causing him to cry out in agony. After about ten seconds Hiashi could take the sounds of his screams no longer and released the jutsu.

"You've done well Hiashi. Now we will meet in thirty minutes for your daughters Byakugan training, so don't be late!" Noburu walked off with his posse of guards leaving the others behind.

The ashamed heir approached his brother to apologize, but Hizashi simply slapped his hand away and give his twin a glare thick enough to cut through stone "Don't touch me you bastard!"

"Brother, please understand. I had have lost my position of heir to the clan if I didn't activate Neji's seal, and I couldn't lose that position after all my hard work."

"Oh, heaven forbid you lose your ever so important title! Even if you have to torture your own damn nephew to do it!"

"Please, Otouto-"

"Don't ever call me that! You've lost that right!" Hizashi then turned to his visibly shaken son and comforted him "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you my son. Come on, we'll go get barbecue."

The father and son walked off out of the compound together leaving Hiashi to wallow in what he had just lost. Meanwhile his daughter approached him confused as to what happened, only her him to sweep her hand out of the way.

"We shouldn't worry about such trivial matters. Come Hinata, we must resume your training at once!"

"But Otou-San don't you think you should apoligize to-"

"Hinata!"

It was then when Hinata followed Her father to the training grounds for a long and brutal regimen of sparring.

* * *

Later that night Hizashi and Neji sat at their favorite table in the newly built Yakiniku Restaurant.

Neji now had a bandage where his curse mark was placed earlier that day "I am sorry about what happened to you earlier Neji. If I was able to stand up to my brother, then maybe you wouldn't be in such a position."

"It's not your fault Otou-San . It's that smelly old man Noburu's."

"Even so. Sometimes I think about how much better your life would have been if I had been born 7 seconds earlier instead of Hiashi. But in the end I guess you can't control your own destiny."

Neji remained silent and ate his meat before he a can rolled by and from that direction he saw a man with a swirling yellow mask walk past them "Who's that guy."

"He's wearing a foreign hita-te. This spells trouble, stay here while I check this out!"

Hizashi asked the man at the counter to watch Neji while he followed the masked man from behind, using his shinobi instincts to remain silent. Eventually he tracked the man into the main building of the Hyuga clan much to his confusion.

The masked man opened the door to the compound with Hizashi following him and sat down in front of two other men. The Hyuga leader, Noburu and the Chairman of the Civlilian Council, Danzō Shimura.

"So you have the package Danzō?"

"Of course Tobi; it's the perfect win-win situation! You get the blood of the Hyuga for your boss, and I gain one of the eyes I'll need for my plan. With your permission of course Lord Hyuga."

"Why wouldn't I Danzō, I've been waiting for the opportunity to dump that gaki off. She's a weak and pathetic girl, not worthy of leading this clan like me." Noburu said arrogantly to his partners in crime.

"Now the plan is for you to sneak into the compound and take the girl around midnight" that's all Hizashi had time to hear before he ran off towards the main family's section of the compound.

He waited until midnight to fight the intruder, hiding silently in the bushes. After a couple hours had passed, Hizashi heard a noise running from the doors of the home. He would have had jumped out and attacked but someone else had heard the intruder before him.

Hiashi Hyuga. The intruder was immediately killed when the heir to the clan struck him through the heart. He took of the mask of the man who tried to kidnap his daughter and froze in horror. For the man he had just killed was the man they had just made a peace treaty with, Kaito Hayashi.

* * *

"So basically your uncle killed some Kumo jerk. What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto asked putting up the bottle of sake he pulled out during the story.

"After Hiashi-Sama killed Kaito, the Sandaime Raikage ignored the fact that one of his ninja invaded our clan to abduct Hinata-Sama and claimed that we violated the conditions of the treaty. Both villages were on the brink of Fourth Shinobi World War, but then E made a deal. He would let the death slide, but only if the Hokage had the murderer executed and his body was delivered to the cloud."

"And your point being. If some guy who sold you short and tortured you for a stupid title got the axe. Though he didn't really deserve it as much as some others, that would probably be a good thing to you."

"Don't you get it! In order to keep the clan's bloodline safe my father was forced to take his place in seppuku!" It was at this point Hiashi stood up from the stand looking ashamed walking somewhere else.

"So let me get this straight. Your holding Hinata responsible for something from 15 years ago, that she barely had anything to do with… HAHAHAHA! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!"

"How dare you laugh at my father's death you bastard!" Neji said as he attempted to strike Naruto with a gentle fist move.

"I'm not laughing at that. It's the fact you say I'm hopeless when your the one holding Hinata responsible for being to weak to avoid kidnapping, when if a three year old could beat a high level shinobi at that age they'd put them in a sideshow."

"Shut up you dobe; I'm not going to be lectured by a failure who drinks, sleeps, and laughs aloud like an idiot in the middle of battle! When will you get it? I'm the genius, your the failure! You were destined to lose to me!" Neji exclaimed as he focused chakra into his hands and attacked Naruto in rapid fire with his palms, though they were deflected by his swords.

**"Eight Trigrams: Mountain Crusher"**

Neji kept on the offensive hoping Naruto would wear himself out, but the swordsman showed no signs of stopping his defense. His nerves only got worse when he realized that the arm he had previously taken out was up and running.

_'How is this happening! When I struck him earlier that should have permanently paralyzed his arm!'_

Just when Neji thought that things couldn't get much worse another Naruto popped from the ground and began attacking him with just as much force as the other was defending. He turned around to try and guard but the real Naruto took the opportunity to jump up and strike.

**"Rokutoryu: Leap of the Whispering Panther: Blitzkrieg Claw!"**

Both Naruto unleashed an onslaught of stabs and slashes onto the utterly cornered Hyuga. This strategy confused almost everyone in the audience, except for those who saw what happened.

"That loser must have cheated! There's no other way he could have made a clone." Sakura exclaimed. That's when Tenten chirped in.

"Au contraire Sakura. If you already knew the story like me, then you probably would put your focus on the match, and not Neji-kun. While Neji-kun was speaking Naruto made a clone of himself burrow underground."

"Looks like Neji still hasn't learned that Naruto can't be underestimated. I guess he'll learn the hard way like I did!" Kiba said as he observed the fight below.

"Just you wait, that baka's going to crash and burn, and then you'll all see what a pathetic loser he is."

Neji slowly felt himself losing steam as chakra flew off his hands in layers, as Naruto and his clone hacked at him with all the fury he had. He felt more and more pain in his hands as the blades came closer and closer to breaking his defense, before he could take it no longer and knocked them back.

**"Kaiten"**

The real Naruto landed on his feet while the other dissipated into smoke. He looked at Neji expecting to go back on the defensive, only to see Neji standing there looking incredibly pissed off.

"I am sick of this match. No matter how you fight you will always remain the failure. The weakest link. It's time for you, Lee, Hinata-Sama, and Nara-San to see how only fate will only favor the geniuses." Neji droned calmly before doing a few handsigns and creating a Kage Bushin. The two Neji then rotated in one swift impact and began ricocheting around the arena's walls.

**"Kaiten: Moulin Rouge"**

Naruto looked around for any escape from the mad spinning balls of chakra. He ran trying anyway he could, before being blindsided by the sphere. After coughing up a bit of blood Naruto began thinking to himself _'Alright Naruto, just think for a second. This is just like a game of sumo tops; there has has to be a pattern you can use to find a safe spot the attack.'_

Waiting a few seconds, Naruto began evading the spheres with his speed and agility alone, along with using Kurama to absorb the potential blows. While he dodged he noticed something. After blocking a spear, the tip of his sword cut Neji ever so slightly on the cheek, causing a small trickle of blood to come out.

Once he was done manuvering around, he noticed from where he stood neither Neji came close to him. He drew a small circle in the dirt with the Shodai Kitetsu and exclaimed "I call checkmate Hyuga-teme. Judging from how fast you two are going I'd say you have no control of the pattern, so since you can't adjust it, this is my safe zone."

"So what? These Kaiten are impenetrable, even with that chakra nullifying katana. And even if it weren't you still wouldn't be able to tell which of us is which. Time for you and that bitch your so fond of, to taste the wrath of destiny! It's time to die!"

Naruto glared at Neji with the ferocity of a tiger, and sheathed both Kurama and Shodai Kitetsu and holding the Yamakawa-o horizontaly above his shoulder.

"There are 36 earthly desires."

After waiting until Neji was in just the right position, and making sure his aim was correct so as to not accidentaly kill his opponent, he swung the sword and from the blade came a large spiraling slash.

**"Ittoryu: 36 Pound Pheonix"**

Neji slowly stopped spinning with a twisted gash from his upper back to his chest. After about thirty seconds, the clone exploded into smoke, and Neji fell to the ground when the momentum ran out, bleeding and exhausted.

"hHhhHow? The Kaiten is the ultimate defense of my clan. Nothing can get through it!"

"Not quite. That 360° vision of yours is actually only about 357°, which leaves leaves a blindspot around the middle of your neck. That blindspot also creates a hole in the Kaiten, which I accidentally cut your cheek through earlier. All I had to do was wait until you showed your neck to attack the one with the bloody cheek."

"This doesn't make sense. Fate was supposed to be on my side today. But now here I lay groveling before you; the one who only made it this far because of luck." It was at this point Naruto crouched down to him.

"Listen Neji-San, fate and luck are pretty much the same thing. So if luck is on my side then fate is on my side. Sometimes life deals you a bad hand, but you just gotta play the cards your dealt to the best of your ability. You've got good people that care about you, Bushy Brows-San , Tenten-San, and Gai-senpai, not to mention Hinata-chan. And if someone like that cares about you, I know you can't be a complete asshole."

Naruto got up and began walking away before turning his head back and concluding "And don't feel to bad about getting your ass kicked by a failure. Cause there's a whole ship of failures I know that could kick the World's ass!"

"Winner of the first match: Roronoa Naruto."

The reactions to this announcement were mixed. On one hand several people were in awe at the fact that a dead last had beaten a previous rookie of the year, and cheered as loudly as ever. Others however were angered either that they lost their betting money, or that "the demon" had won his match and proceeded to boo and throw garbage at him.

In response to the negative reception, Naruto simply took off his hood and began howling with laughter "That's right boo me you bunch of bastards! But like it or not your paying up to the betting offices!"

Up in the aforementioned stands the other members, the supporters of Naruto were showing visible excitement. Anko carried a giggly Naifū on her shoulders, the Hokage and Mizukage were taking in the bets from the other Kage who bet on Neji, and the remaining genin were in an uproar about the outcome.

"Told you so forehead!"

"There's just no way. Naruto-Baka had to have cheated. Either that or it was a genjutsu, since he's just a dobe who'll never do anything right!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Except for kicking pretty boy ass! Naruto's the best gennin in the exams. He'd have to, to be able to defeat someone as great as me!"

"Shut up Kiba-Baka. Sasuke-kun's the best and everyone knows it! Naruto-Baka only one because he's a cowardly cheater!" Sakura immediately silenced herself when she felt a large mass of killing intent coming from Hinata.

"Get one thing straight you whore. If you ever adress Naruto-kun in such a way again, and I'll stop your heart! You got that?"

"Yyyes mam! I'm sorry."

"So Naruto managed to beat Neji. I hope that this battle rekindled my students diminished flames of youth." Gai said before he noticed his other student shaking before exploding with fire in his eyes.

"Naruto-kun has defeated Neji. Now I know for sure he is meant to be my eternal rival! I must challenge him to a brotherly clashing of fists!"

The reactions of the match came to a halt when an unexpected guest put his hand on Hinata's shoulder. It was the current head of the Hyuga clan and Hinata's father, Hiashi Hyuga "Hinata I need you to come with me. There's a Hyuga jutsu that you have to learn."

* * *

Neji lay down in the stadium's infirmary feeling incredibly disgraced from his defeat. From the doctor's diagnosis he had multiple cuts across his body from Naruto's onslaught of swords. However only the last one would leave a permanent scar.

He decided to try and take a nap, and try to think about where he went wrong during the battle but someone he wasn't expecting came through the door of his hospital room "You lost your match eh nephew? The Hyuga Council won't like that one bit."

"What do you want Hiashi-Sama?!" Neji said filled with venom, despite the respectful title.

To his his surprise, Hiashi simply bowed down and began to weep holding a scroll in his hands. Neji picked up and opened the scroll, and his eyes widened as he saw the text painted on to the paper.

"He had a choice…"

"I would have died myself if I had not been knocked out by him before I could go to the execution chamber. To this day I cannot tell if he did this to save my life, or to just once chose his own fate."

"My father was strong enough to shape his own destiny. Not like me, the so called genius who lost to a failure. I wish I knew if he was just lucky or if fate was on his side."

"Well that's subjective, but he likely still would have one even if he hadn't discovered the blindspot. From the physics of the Moulin Rouge you can't yet control it, so it would continued until you were completely drained of chakra, giving Naruto the chance to finish you off. But there was one point in his victory Naruto had to shape his fate."

"What do you mean?"

"The location of the blindspot is the perfect place to kill. If he had aimed even a foot higher, your head would have been lopped clean off."

Neji dropped to his knees and began hyperventilating quickly after that revelation of how close he came to death. After he calmed himself down he said sounding very choked up "I swear from this point on, fate will no longer dominate my life, and that I will be make the most of the life that was spared today."

"You don't have to that alone Neji-San." A new feminine voice called out. It was Hinata looking joyed that Neji had finally found hope. Neji immediately hopped up and began bowing.

"Hinata-Sama, please forgive me for my transgressions against you a month ago. I promise I will make it up to you in any way I can, and I give my full blessing for your relationship with Cinderface-Sama."

_'Wait, Cinderface-Sama?'_

Hinata simply focused orange looking chakra into her finger and touched it to Neji's forehead, before embracing her shocked cousin "Neji, it's alright. Me and Naruto-kun have already forgiven you. It's time to move on from everything and get rid of that part of our past."

It was then that she broke the hug, and pulled a mirror from the counter of the room to show Neji something that had changed. The cursed seal that had been placed on his head so many years ago had been wiped from his forehead.

"It's a jutsu I developed after the death of Hizashi. I haven't been able to use it due to Noburu's influence, so I figured this would be a good test." Hiashi explained.

Now Neji could take it no longer and broke down weeping with happiness thanking the one's who freed him of his cage. Hiashi looked out the window and saw a bird flying away, laughing to himself about the irony of the situation before thinking _'Of course Noburu will be pissed when he figures out what we did. But we can cross that bridge when we get to it. For now we should just enjoy the sun while its out'_

* * *

**Omake:**

**Jiraiya had been living int the same building as Naruto ever since he returned to the village. Right now he was simply watching TV in his easy chair.**

**TV: Your watching the Lifetime channel**

**Jiraiya: Hey Naruto. I can't find the remote and I don't want to stand up.**

**TV: Up next Dance Moms. Staring scary ladies.**

**Jiraiya: Naruto!**

***The theme song stars playing***

**Jiraiya: No! NOOOOOOOO!**

* * *

**(A/N): Let's get this out of the way right now. Why did this chapter take so long to get out.**

**1): High school. I have a lot of grades to take care of with the school year drawing to a close really fast. Not to mention my extracurricular activities.**

**2): Trips. I've been taking a lot of trips lately whether it be a family trip over a four day weekend, or a state competition for one of my clubs. And with a trip coming up for another of my extracurricular activities I'll be having trouble again. This wouldn't be trouble if my writing device didn't turn into a toaster without WiFi.**

**3): Writers block. It happens.**

**Look on the bright side though the chapter came out today didn't it? Hope you enjoyed it cause with all the crap I have to do I have no clue when the next one will come out. But it won't be as long as this one took, I promise you that.**

**Next Chapter: Truths Revealed**

**. . .**


	16. Truths Revealed

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then I'd never have to go to school again. I can only dream T-T.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 15: Truths Revealed**

* * *

At about noon, an enraged and determined Kakashi ran through the fields outside Konoha with sparks of red lightning flying off his body. Right now the only thing his mind could focus on was turning Danzō and Fū into ashes.

He stopped dead in his tracks though when he saw a large group of foreign ninja with purple camouflage and black masks setting up what appeared to be a summoning ritual. When he saw their hita-te he knew that they were not only Oto, but Shotatsu as well.

"Hey it's that escaped prisoner!"

"Maybe if we catch him will get a promotion!"

"Stop the bastard!"

"I don't have time for this!" Kakashi spoke under his breath before pausing to do some hand seals and release a technique on the Oto-Nin **"Kage Bushin"**

The platoon of Shotatsu were completely unprepared for when multiple Kakashi appeared in a flash of light and then burrowed underground. The commanding officer then ordered his men "Don't just stand their you idiots! Send some fire jutsu down the holes and fry him!"

None of them had the chance to though, as they found themselves pulled down into the ground with only their heads sticking out from the ground. The only one the wasn't trapped by the earth below was the commanding officer.

Before he could tell what was going on though, large blasts of red electricity came from the holes in which is men were trapped, instantly incinerating all of them. The man could only drop to his knees from the shock of seeing his entire platoon wiped from life in less than a second.

A flash of lightning struck right in front of him, and the ninja who killed the other of his group appeared before him. Lifting the Oto-Nin up by the collar of his shirt, Kakashi asked in a very firm matter "What the hell are you doing here?"

The terrified captive tried to answer "We wWe…"

"TALK!"

"We were here to start the invasion of Otogakure and Sunagakure. When the match of Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara Sabaku ended we would release the power of the Ichibi and the Kyuubi to destroy Konaha to clear a space for the construction of the Asura Tower! Now please don't kill me!"

Kakashi angrily leered at the man before dropping him and turning around. The Oto-Nin tried to escape by crawling away as fast as he could, but was stopped in his tracks when a kunai pierced his heart.

"Sorry, but I can't let one of the Santatsu learn that I know of their final plans for the exams. Oh well, if Otogakure is invading then that means Orochimaru is here as well. That should give me an opportunity to kill two of the big guys. All I need then is to find out who Tobi really is." Kakashi said to himself before continuing on his run to the stadium at top speed.

* * *

Back at the stadium, the spectators were still in an uproar over Naruto unexpectedly winning his match. After he was finished taunting those who heckled him due to losses of bets Naruto headed back into the blue corner's doors, while Neji was placed on a gurney and wheeled off to the hospital and the wind arena retracted back into the dark gray plastic floor.

Up in the examinees section Shikamaru and Shino greeted Naruto with heavy congratulations. Or at least Shikamaru did "Well here comes the man of the hour. Honestly you just keep getting more troublesome!"

"Your calling me troublesome? I may be stronger physically but mentally you could kick my ass; why else do you think your the last person I'd want to fight? Ummm, what's up with him?" Naruto pointed out Shino's sulking.

"What's your problem? We both bet on Naruto so we're going to get at least a couple hundred thousand beris. Don't tell me your still bugged about Naruto not recognizing you when he came back?"

"What else would I be upset about?"

"I don't get it. Your literally the only one who recognized me when I came back, and I'm not depressed every time I look at Kiba or Chouji!"

Over on the other side of the box Temari and Kankuro watched with confusion "I don't get it. How can he act so casually after a match like that?"

"Maybe the Grand Line just causes that to happen!" Temari suggested before noticing a large amount of killing intent coming from her youngest brother. Gaara store down at the arena as if waiting for any opponent to come forward, with an excited and bloodthirsty grin plastered on his pale face.

_'Shit, that idiot better not lose it before the invasion begins, otherwise all three villages will be wiped out.'_

But more excitement blanketed the spectators when Genma looked around befuddled at what to do next, and looked incredibly nervous when he noticed Sasuke had not arrived at the arena yet.

He decided to simply play it by ear, and read from the dialogue "Would Gaara Sabaku and Sasuke Uchiha please make eway to their respective corners so we can begin the second match?"

After yelling in his alternating southern drawl, he looked up to his Hokage as if to ask instructions on what to do next.

"It appears that the Uchiha boy has not arrived yet. From the rule book it's at this point where the Kage of his village must decide whether to disqualify him or not. Your move Sarutobi-Sama ." Onoki told his old friend.

"Though it might cause an uproar I have no choice. Sasuke Uchiha must be disqualified from the exams for his arrogance."

"Hokage-S-sama, I implore you to rethink your dec-cis-sion. Mos-st of the daimyo and noblemen here came only to witnes-s-s my s-son and S-Sasuke-s-san fight. If you dis-squalify him, it could cause a major ups-set."

"I'm sorry Kazekage-Sama, but I cannot show favortism among my ranks. If this were an important mission and Sasuke were to have arrived late, the village would be put in great jeaprody, if not completly destroyed."

The disguised Orochimaru nodded to Hiruzen's decision, though on the inside he was seething as he made a discreet signal to postpone the invasion to a later fight _'Damn you Ssssssarutobi. Thissss won't do anything but annoy me!"_

Raidō was then summoned to Hiruzen's side and told the news. Though he looked shocked for a split second, the chunin quickly regained composure and left to deliver the information to Genma.

When the message finally made its way to the proctor, he let out a sigh of anxiety before delivering the announcement to the equally anxious audience "Attention bystanders, due to the inability to arrive for his match, Sasuke Uchiha has been disqualified from the Chunin Exams. Therefore the winner of the second match by default is Gaara Sabaku!"

The moment he finished saying it the audience once again went into an uproar of complaints, with some even just flat out standing up and leaving without a word afterward.

"No way! How come Naruto-Baka gets off scot free for cheating on his match, when my Sasuke-kun gets disqualified. That old fart of a Hokage must be senile." Sakura said aloud much to the annoyance of everyone around her.

"Hm, well that's a shocker. I didn't think he'd have the balls to disqualify that prick. How troublesome."

"Hey good riddance if you ask me. The only thing I'm upset about is that I won't be able to kick his ass myself!" Naruto retorted to his lazy friend before he noticed a large amount of killing intent leaking his way.

When Naruto felt the hostile aura hit his body, he turned around to its red-headed source, who currently had an even more insane grin pinned onto his pale face _'Look's like I'm his new favorite. Any advice Kurama.'_

**_'The best thing you could do right now is to try to avoid death. Shukaku has always been one crazy bitch, so it's only natural her jinchuriki is just as nutty.'_**

"I just wish that my match didn't get moved closer. What a drag!"

"Now we shall begin the next match. Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro Sabaku will now commence." Genma announced, ignoring the weapons and death threats being thrown his way.

_'Oh shit! My fight's up and I have to keep Crow and Killer Ant's mechanics a secret for the invasion.' _Kankurō before calling down to Genma "Actually proctor I'm not feeling so hot. I withdraw."

"Alrightie then. The winner of the third match by default is Shino Aburame!"

Unlike with Sasuke's disqualification where at least some of the audience was satisfied with the results, everybody was frustrated the results of this match. Whether it be Shino being upset that he didn't get to fight, Naruto being upset that he was running out of time to replenish his strength to fight Gaara, or Shikamaru being upset that his match had been moved closer again.

"Is this for real? First I was last and now I'm second? What a drag!"

"Would Temari Sabaku and Shikamaru Nara please come down so that we can resume with their match?" Genma asked in his loud western style voice. Temari then flew down on her fan into the blue corner.

"That's one down. Alright Nara-San, get down here!"

"What a drag. Maybe I should just give up too!" Shikamaru said before he felt a foot get shoved into his back and he flew into the red corner.

"Sorry Shikamaru, but I need more time to prepare myself in fighting Sandy Tatoos over here. Good luck!" Naruto yelled down to his irritated friend.

_'Bastard…'_

With Shikamaru down, and the fight able to begin Genma pressed the button for the random arena pick resulting in the snail jumbotron forming the element spinner. After a few moments the light landed on Earth.

Even after the arena turned into a badland Shikamaru still laid where he was knocked down, irritated by the jeers of those who were still angry over Sasuke's disqualification. Temari sensed this and began mocking him "Are you really going to throw it away like those other guys? Well if you aren't going to make a move I will first!"

"Wait I haven't said go yet!" Temari ignored the proctor and resumed her charge towards Shikamaru with her fan in hold "Right, this girl is one of one's who can kick your ass in a millisecond."

The Suna girl swung her fan down onto Shikamaru, barely giving him enough time to defend with a kunai. When the dust cleared Shikamaru stood above her, vertically on the wall "I can't say being a chunin matters much to me. But there'so no way I'm getting beaten by a chick."

Angered by his remark Temari sent out a gust of wind from her fan, but Shikamaru had thrown a pair of shuriken across the gravely stadium and substituted with them, giving him an opportunity to hide.

"Well I'll give him one thing. He's an expert at running away from me."

Shikamaru his behind the tree he transported himself to thinking for a way out of the situation, as he absorbed the cheers from Ino and Kiba, and the jeers of those calling him a coward.

"Come on Shikamaru! Take her down and take that rank!"

"I'm surprised he hasn't quit. Albeit that would probably get him killed by you, Naruto, or the audience." Chouji nonchalantly responded to his teammate's hyperactivity as he grabbed chips from his bag and slowly crushed them up in his mouth.

_'You'd better keep on your guard Temari. With this guy hiding, with the additi of his fighting style could lead to bad results. Watch the shadows!'_

_'Sometimes I wish I could be a cloud. Just floating up there without a care in the world, instead of having this woman trying to kill me.'_

While he was lost in his thoughts, Temari spotted him and released a large gust of wind from her fan. The lazy Nara had no time to avoid the attack, and was cut multiple time all over his body.

But to Temari's shock, a shadow came from the gravel debris with intent to capture her. She began hopping away from the Jutsu until it stretched to its limit and came to a halt, mere inches away from her. Out of danger for the time being, she drew a line where the shadow had stopped.

"I've seen through your little trick; you can only go so far with your shadow meaning this is my safe zone." In response to her claim Shikamaru showed slight irritation before making an odd symbol with his hands.

"I don't think I've ever seen that seal before. Is he doing some new jutsu?" Sakura asked to herself aloud.

"Not really. Whenever Shikamaru makes that symbol with his hands it means that he's coming up with a new strategy. It's like when he plays Shougi or Go with Asuma-Sensei, whenever he's stuck, he pauses for a second to plan out his next move."

"That can't be right! Shikamaru is a loser just like Naruto-Baka, there's no way he can't be that smart. Only my Sasuke-kun can be that amazing."

"Why do I waste time trying to reason with you?" Chouji said after a frustrated sigh.

Temari didn't let her guard down and resumed attacking him with large gusts of wind, forcing Shikamaru to take shelter behind a stone. Acting as fast as he could, Shikamaru took out a kunai and slid his potato sack jacket off for usage in his plan.

"Stop running from me!" Temari cried as she continued her onslaught before nearly getting hit with a kunai. It was then when the shadow began its charge from Shikamaru's feet again. She sneered at the attack before it passed the line made at the same pace.

When it stopped again Temari drew another line in the ground with the edge of her fan "So that's why you've just been waiting. As the sun goes west the shadow on the arena extends itself, giving you a longer attack range."

Shikamru just smiled and nodded to the girl as she planned in her head _'Now all I have to do is finish him before he can extend his shadow any further.'_

"Temari-Neesan! Look above you!" Kankuro shouted to his older sister. She followed his advice and saw that her opponent had throw his jacket up as a parachute to extend his reach.

She now had the jump back once again to avoid getting trapped and defeated. After tailing her for a bit the shadow finally pulled to its limit. Out of danger's way once again, she pulled out her fan and covered herself with it.

_'That was way to close; I'll have to end this quick! Judging from his shadow's current position he can't get me anymore. So all I have to do is create a Kage Bushin and while he goes for the fake, I can tear him apart with my Sickle Weasel Attack. Now let's fini-'_

The Suna girl was cut from her thoughts when she felt her arm moving on its own. She looked above her fan to see Shikamaru with a victorious smirk "Checkmate."

"How? Your shadow can't have that big of a range!"

"Your right, it can't. Which is why I lured you to the hole Naruto made from his sneak attack on Neji, the only thing left behind from the wind arena. The hole behind you is the one the clone dug into, so I had my shadow enter the one it popped out of. Since its nothing but dark down there, my shadow would gain an indefinite reach which I would use to come at your blindspot."

"I admit that's impressive but you can't do anything to me without hurting yourself. And unlike that last girl, I'm nowhere near the wall." Temari argued through her struggle.

"Who said that the Shadow Possession Jutsu was the only technique I had. All I needed was for it to link up to you to continue my finish." Shikamaru countered her before switching hand seals slightly.

**"Shadow Suffucation Jutsu"**

The shadow then crawled up the girl to her neck. Temari's expression changed from a confident one, to a defeated one "I take it you'll finish me off if I don't give up? Looks like I have no choice; proctor, I withdraw."

"Ok then. Attention everyone, the winner of the fourth match is Shikamaru Nara!"

For the second time in an hour, the crowds went into a uproar for an old dead last's victory. However this time it was less divided with almost everyone cheering for the Nara, the only ones who didn't were ones who bet against him.

"By the way, you could have picked a less lewd way of beating me, you pervert. Do you have any idea what that thing crawling up you feels like?!" Temari scolded the exhausted Nara.

"There's no other way to perform the jutsu, and the clutch would be overdoing it. It's pointless to bitch about it, troublesome woman."

This remark visibly pissed Temari off, culminating in her stomping across the rock terrain over to Shikamaru and pull him up by collar, who mentally prepared himself for the beating he was about to receive. What neither he nor anyone in the audience was prepared for however, was for Temari to kiss him straight on the lips.

She continued for about five seconds before she let the blushing Nara free."Call me Shika-kun"

After recovering from the shock of what just happened, Naruto jumped down into the arena and grabbed his friend and took him back up to the contenders box. Shino and Naruto looked upon their catatonic friend in silence before Naruto thought aloud.

"So what was the point of that again Shino?"

"That trying to beat a Nara in a battle of wits is a very bad idea, and women can be very confusing."

It was then when Kankurō interjected "True that Aburame! Especially when it's my older sister your talking about!"

"Hey didn't you forfeit or something?"

"…"

The next thing Kankurō knew he was thrown out of the box and landed headfirst on the ground below. "_Damn…you…Cinderface…" _He grumbled in pain as Temari approached him.

"Oh get over it. In the meantime we should preparing for the you-know-what!" Temari whispered through her teeth.

Kankuro stumbled up to a stance and replied to her "You seem to be forget something Neesan. When you-know-what happens it will turn this village and everyone in it into a crater. Including your new boyfriend."

When Temari realized this she looked incredibly conflicted, before regaining her composure and sporting a mischievous look on her face. Kankurō noticed this and said "So you're thinking what I'm thinking. Well I have a little theory of what's up with Oto-Sama but we'll need to get it out before we can do anything, cause just us between all those guys I don't like the sound of."

Temari nodded at her younger brother before the two of them shushined off the arena, while Genma watched in utter confusion. Ignoring this he continued "The first round has now concluded and the second will resume immediately. Would Roronoa Naruto and Gaara Sabaku please come down so we may continue."

Gaara almost instantly transported himself down into the circle and looked at the chunin with disinterest. Back up in the stands a daimyo was stating his opinions "This is pointless, it's obvious that the Suna boy will win. Cinderface is nothing but criminal trash!"

"Now now, if he can take down someone like Hyuga he can surely take down some insomniac. I'm betting on the Cinderface this time around."

The former nodded to his fellow feudal lord before looking over to his body guards and signaled them to dispatch.

"It appears to be your cue Naruto-San. Are you giving up?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Just grabbing my sake, since I might need to take a drink from all the running I'll need to do during this match." Naruto said as he turned around to head down into the blue corner. But before he could make his way down, another voice rang out in the middle of the arena.

"Alright Senbon-teeth time for my match." Sasuke said as he stood arrogantly on the plastic ground.

The leaf audience immediately broke into a cheer when they saw their prodigy take the stage. Genma who took offense at the insulting nickname broke the news "Sorry duckass, but I'm afraid you've been disqualified. Hope you bought a ticket."

"You seem to be under the misconception that you can order me around. But I am superior to you and everyone here. So I don't give a damn about the time you'll let me in!"

It was at this point Genma was starting to really get pissed off "Oh really you little squirt; well if you want to bitch about it your talking to the wrong guy. All orders I get come directly from the Hokage himself."

"HAHAHAHA, you really think I care about what that senile old rat says. If he had any brains in that musty old head of his he'd hand the title of Hokage over to me!" Sasuke continued to mouth off to the Tobetsku Jounin.

This comment had crossed the line for Genma who prepared to smack the arrogant boy, but his hand was caught on the way there. It was then when he felt his hand being broken. As the proctor screamed in agony he noticed the curse mark flaming across Sasuke's face.

"I'm confused Hokage-Sama. How can the Uchiha fight a Jounin several ranks higher than him?"

"I was confused at first, but I think that it might be a combination of his devil fruit and the curse mark Orochimaru placed on him. The seal increases his physical strength when it's activated but it also decreases his mental health."

Once he was finished speaking Sarutobi stood up to take care of the situation on his own; but before he could…

**"Sunaken "**

In what appeared to be less than a second, Gaara had knocked Sasuke out with a fist made out of his iron sand and into the wall of the stadium "You no longer interest mother Uchiha. She now sees you are nothing more than an arrogant child, and she wishes only to fight the ones who've proven themselves worthy. Bring mother the blood of only the Three Konoha Brains."

"I think that he is referring to you, Shikamaru-San, and I, Naruto-San."

Naruto nodded to his slightly eccentric friend before heading down into the blue corner, where his toughest battle yet would begin.

* * *

As he walked down the dark hallway towards the empty hallway, he saw a familiar face.

"I apologize Naruto, but your going to need to drop out. This is Sasuke's match after all!" Fū said still in his Kakashi disguise. However this time Naruto wasn't fooled and he lopped off the head of the fake.

But only a straw came out as it transformed into a scarecrow marionette which reattached its head and began attacking with its kama and kuwa unsheathed his swords and began to defend against it, while Fū shed his disguise "So tell me demon, how did you learn it was me all along"

"Well for starters your way to favoritizing even for Kakashi. Not to mention I haven't seen you read those pervy books he was so found of once in the month and a half zi've been stuck here." Naruto answered before swiping its weapons out of the way and bisecting it, only for it to automatically repair once again.

"This is starting to annoy me. Get out of my way before I cut you and your little play toy to molecules you bastard!"

"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere demon! Not until Uchiha-Sama recovers and gets to resume his match with-"

Before the ROOT agent could finish a large flash of red electricity sped down the hallway and shocked him, while avoiding Naruto entirely. Once Fū collapsed in pain another figure appeared in the hallway.

"Naruto, take down Gaara and Shukaku before Danzō gets wind of our counterattack. I'll take everything from here!"

Naruto nodded to the man and ran outside where Gaara and Genma were waiting and Sasuke was being placed on a stretcher "Are you ready to begin Roronoa-San?"

"Hai."

"Good, you better be ready. Because mother wants your blood!" Gaara said grinning like mad with tons of bloodlust in his voice.

Back in the dark and dank hallway Fū was slowly recovering from the shock he had just received. He asked in a flustered and enraged tone "Who the hell just did that to me?" before he was shocked again and picked up by the collar of his jacket.

When he got a good look at the man threatening he broke out into a cold sweat. For it was the man he'd been impersonating for the past five years, Kakashi Hatake "You know some say that impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery. But even so, you and I need to have a little talk."

* * *

**Omake: **

**Back up in the contestants box Shino was entertaining himself by drawing on the frozen Shikamaru's face.**

**Shino: I'm beginning to see the appeal of such immature behavior! But it still needs a finishing touch…Aha!**

**Shino pulled a top hat with a card with an abnormal fraction on it, stuck in the rim of the hat. But it was then when he noticed something else written on the card.**

**Shino: Voodoo's Disciple will return Memorial Day 2015? What the hell does that mean?**

* * *

**(A/N): Sorry I used that old cliche of Sasuke getting disqualified, which wasn't my original plan. But I still need him to be a threat to Naruto, at least until next arc when they throw down for real. And yes I really am bringing back Voodoo's Disciple, but it will be as a rewrite since the original was less than stellar in my opinion. And in other news the prewriting for the next arc has officially begun production! Since I don't have anything else I'm ending off here. Hope you enjoy the new chapter. But the next chapter might take longer (for real this time) because I only have a month left of my sophomore year and finals are approaching fast. Again. Joy bunnies.**

**Next Chapter: Stop the Invasion: The Leaf's Counterattack**

**. . .**


	17. Stop the Invasion!

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then I wouldn't have to take finals. _Eeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiiiilllllll. _Well at least I managed to hire some new guys for the next arc.**

**L: Don't tell me your going to spoil the surprise just yet Skillet.**

**Skillet: Just you L, since your one of the most popular anime characters of all time. The other two will wait till the next arc.**

**L: And now their going to hold you to it.**

**Skillet: Relax it's not like I'm letting someone annoying do these things. Especially not with Cedric on leave for the rewrite of his own story.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor **

**Chapter 16: Stop the Invasion: The Leaf's Counterattack**

* * *

On the southwest corner of Konoha, a group of Suna Nin were waiting for the signal that would never come due to Kakashi's assault on them. The leader of the group was the continent renowned Wind Swordsman Baki.

"Damn it. I'm sick and tired of waiting for them. What the hell is Orochimaru doing anyway?" One of the irritated shinobi said.

"We have to be patient. How do you think I feel about this whole thing; in case you haven't noticed we're committing omnicide by releasing two demons from their cage. The only reason I'm even going along with this is because of Rasa-Sama."

"Yeah as crazy as this plan seems, he usually knows what's best for the village."

Baki came to a decision on his own and stood in front of the army "Listen up men, its become clear that they aren't going to give the signal anytime soon. We can only assume that they were somehow killed and that the leaf has learned of our alliance with Oto. Needless to say the attack will begin and the leaf will fall effective immediately!"

"Hold it right there Baki-Sensei!" Temari said as she flew down on her fan and Kankuro followed under her.

"What are you fools doing here? Your supposed to keep any Konoha-Nin away from Gaara and Cinderface once they transform!"

"We're Baki-Sensei, but we learned something we had to share with you." Kankuro explained to his superior.

The masked Suna commander let out a sigh of exasperation before giving in to them "Alright what is it."

"If you remember clearly, Orochimaru's Vanishing Facial Copy Jutsu can only steal a face after the subject has been killed, and he couldn't have done the Transformation jutsu because Otou-Sama never shows his face to anyone. And isn't it strange how he agreed to the Invasion right after he was sent to take care of the border skirmish."

Baki's eyes widened in epiphany as he realized what had happened to his leader and how their village got pulled into this. Baki gave a look of enraged fury before turning to his men.

"Listen up, that bastard Orochimaru tricked us. So there's going to be a change of plans; we're going to continue our alliance with Konoha for now so that we can get revenge for Rasa-Sama. If you see any Oto-Nin show no mercy!"

"Sir yes sir!" The group said in unison. Baki walked up to one of his men and gave him another order "You, now that we're against Otogakure I need you to tell Chiyo and Ebizō to cancel the unleashing of the Ichibi and the Kyuubi."

"Yes sir."

"And you two, I know just what your job should be." Baki said as he turned to his late friends children with a vengeful glare in his eyes.

* * *

Inside the tunnels of Konoha Stadium two figures stood on the moist and dusty ground. One had silver hair and a mask that covered the entire lower half of his face and had red lightning angrily dancing around his body.

The man he was holding up by the collar had a look of fear on his face, which quickly turned into a look of arrogance "What's so funny you fake?"

**"Spirit Transfer Jutsu: Close Range Impalement!"**

Kakashi was completely unprepared for the blades of kairoseki to stab him through the stomach. He stumbled back while clutching his wound from pain and breathing heavily as blood leaked from the tear in his flesh.

"You honestly didn't think I would make my self vulnerable to Devil Fruit powers did you. I'm not like Torune or Sai. I don't even need that stupid emotional seal."

Kakashi gave his opponent a glare before sending a bolt of lightning from the tips of his fingers into the blades causing the man to explode.

"Seastone may negate Devil Fruit powers but it's still made of metal. And metal conducts electricity. As long as I remain in my lightning form you can't touch me." Kakashi said before he began loosing energy and dropping to his knees.

He looked up to see Fū standing above him still alive and not blown to a lifeless stain on the wall "The metal still pierced you, and now the molecules of the alloy are flowing through your veins. And until it dissipates and dissolves away your sunk Copy Ninja."

**"Fire Style: Giant Fireball Jutsu!"**

Fū had no time to avoid getting incinerated by the blast, and barely had any time to transfer his mind to a new scarecrow. Kakashi looked around the tunnel for the imposter before having to dodge another slice from the kairoseki Kama.

He looked behind him to see a large group of Fū's battle scarecrow heading towards him. The flustered copy-nin performed his handsigns and unleashed an attack onto the small of army of small dolls.

**"Earth Style: Earth Wave"**

The dolls flew back away from Kakashi, but they got right back up after the blow, much to the attackers annoyance "How tough are these things? There made of straw for crying out loud!"

**"Ninja Art: Straw Constriction Jutsu"**

Kakashi had no time to prepare for the incredibly thick strands of straw which grabbed him by the ankles and wrists. He tried to fry his restraints, but his Devil Fruit was still out of order and his hands were too far separated to perform any handsigns.

"Well looks like I have you trapped. I would finish you off right now, but that wouldn't be as much fun." Fū said as he approached with an expression of sadism on his face.

"Do your worst shitbag."

Fū smirked at his taunting before doing the handsigns to activate his genjutsu.

**"Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu"**

After a few moments everything around Kakashi turned into darkness that concealed the nightmare created for him. While trapped he could only think about what was to come _'I wonder what that bastard's going to make me see. It will probably have something to do with Obito or Rin. Or maybe Naruto or Minato-Sensei. Or my Icha Icha novels!'_

He was broken from his mental ravings when he heard terrible music coming from inside the darkness. When the light's finally came on he gasped in horror. There was two dumbasses dancing around and changing their environment to fit what could be called "lyrics". But what was most annoying was the fact that they kept repeating the same word over and over again.

"Waffles, waffles waffles. Waffles, Waffles, Waffles."

"No. No! **NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**"

* * *

Back in a less hellish part of our story, a group of Suna and Oto-Nin were seeing conflict with each other. One of the Oto commanders fighting angrily asked Baki "What the hell are you doing? Your supposed to be killing the leaf shinobi!"

"And you weren't supposed to have killed Rasa-Sama. But you didn't keep that end of the deal did you?" Baki answered sarcastically before slicing off his opponents head with his signature Wind Sword.

The Suna Jounin smirked at the corpse before having to defend against another attack from behind.

**"Wind Style: Pressurized Air Bullets"**

The attacker was blown back by the balls of wind that came from his targets oral cavity, but managed to create a small scratch on the uncovered side of his face "Damn, that was way too close. I need to be more careful."

"Baki-senpai we've got trouble. They keep adding onto their forces, and I don't know how much longer we can keep this up!"

The shinobi who was giving the information immediately found himself dead with a large gash on his back. Baki looked in the direction of the attack to see a smug and bloodthirsty Kabuto walking towards him with another wave of Oto-Nin

"So you are The Legendary Baki of the Wind Blade. I would love to pit your technique against my Devil Fruit power, but we don't really have the time." Kabuto said as a curse mark began to crawl across his face.

Baki looked at the mark in horror before noticing that all of the soldiers were gaining the same thing in different patterns across their face _'Shit, it only took one of these freaks to axe off Baki. Hold on, keep a cool head Baki. That was an Uchiha and he had a Devil Fruit power. The only one you should really have to worry about is Kabuto.'_

He had no more time to thin as the curse mark embedded soldiers began to charge at him and who remained of his army like a crazed bull. Though they fought with all their might, the small platoon was no match for the onslaught from the genetically altered Oto-Nin.

In about five minutes Baki stood above a large pile of corpses in his own men, along with the curse mark Shinobi he'd slain. Kabuto stood in front of the exhausted fighter with the men he had left, and proceeded to mock him.

"Looks like Baki of the Wind Blade has fallen. Or at least he's run out of chakra. Any last words?"

"Yeah, kiss my ass you four-eyed transvestite." Baki grumbled as Kabuto gathered wind in his hand and prepared to strike. However right before the gust could render his head from his shoulders.

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

**"Flying Swallow"**

Kabuto was extremely shocked to find that all of his superhuman ninja had been completely blown away by an odd-looking man wearing a green jumpsuit, and his killing blow had been completely stopped by a bearded man wielding trench knives. He tried to counter the block but found the trench knives on the other side of his body with a hole in his gut.

"Gai? Asuma? What are you two doing here? Your supposed to be knocked out by that genjutsu by this time!" Kabuto frantically asked to both himself and the environment.

Asuma noticed this as it was his turn to smugly answer "After Temari and Kankuro told the Suna elders that the mission was aborted, they made it their own mission to knock out the genjutsu releasers and tell every available leaf shinobi in the arena about your little invasion. Now your goose is cooked! Isn't that right Kurenai-chan."

Kabuto was confused by this at first, but found himself knocked to the ground by what appeared to be a pantheress, which after having him pinned began to speak in a woman's voice "Your little crime syndicate aren't the only ones with Devil Fruit powers."

"Let me go red-eyed slut!"

"Fat chance Kabuto; you're staying right here until the Exams are finished." Asuma told him before he began directing the others "Kiba, Chouji, you take the northeastern corner of the village. Tenten, Ino you take the northwestern corner. Gai, you're in charge of the southwestern corner; I'm pretty sure you can handle it on your own. The rest of you and the remaining Suna-Nin will clear the southeastern corner."

Baki gave Asuma a look of gratefulness as they dispatched before playfully teasing him "What you couldn't get Jiraiya to comer fight too?"

"Well we tried but he was nowhere to be found." Asuma said bashfully, placing his head behind his head. However, he still couldn't help but think about just where Jiraya was at the moment.

* * *

The aforementioned sage was currently sitting on his sofa, eating a pint of ice cream and sobbing his eyes out as the TV played.

"I don't care about dukes, or commoners, or His Royal Highness Lionel of Cornwall. I'm not afraid anymore mother!"

"Duchess, I forbid you."

"I may be a duchess, but I'm also a woman!"

"Yes! Yes, in your face Elizabeth. Oh it's just like my life…in a way." Jiraya cried as he continued watching the movie.

* * *

Meanwhile, back inside the inner workings of the stadium, Fū continued to keep Kakashi under the hold of his illusion "Good thing he didn't know that wasn't the Hell Viewing Jutsu at all. It was just a False Surroundings Technique."

Fū retained his arrogant demeanor before realizing that Kakashi was unconsciously breaking free of the straw entrapping him. To prevent his escape Fū threw kairoseki shuriken into him, but that didn't hinder him as he tore through the grain constricting him.

The unconscious jounin's next course of action was the lift up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan "Do you really think that's going to do anything. You can't copy my jutsu if you can't escape it."

"Who…said…I…was…copying…the…genjutsu?" Kakashi wheezed as the tomoe in his eye began to spin.

**"Sharingan Art: Illusionary Flip Jutsu"**

Fū's eyes widened in horror when he realized the tables had turned just the same as the genjutsu and began screaming in agony when he started to see the illusion "MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! RELEASE! RELEASE!"

"Well that was certainly amusing. Well for me, not so much for you." Kakashi said after cutting himself free, to the heavily breathing Fū.

By this point, the ROOT ANBU was tired, frustrated, and pissed as all hell. And Kakashi's last taunt was the straw that broke the camel's back, which caused him to go completely insane with an ear-piercing scream.

Kakashi found his ears beginning to bleed slightly from high-decibel wailing, he saw even more screaming Fū's coming from the shadows in a nightmare-like display. Shockingly it got even worse when gravel and mud began spewing out of the wailing white-eyed duplicates, all of which began flaking away in straw, leaving only one.

"Well that may have been terrifying, but I saved me the trouble of going through all your bodies to find the real one." Kakashi continued to snark despite his wounds and rapid heart rate.

Before the copy ninja could attack his real body Fū ripped off his kimono and revealed small rectangular marking on his chest which he proceeded to activate them, creating a small black hole around the him as his body imploded around him.

**"Miniature Reverse Four Symbols Sealing"**

Kakashi backed away from the void as fast and agile as he could before it disappeared "If that's the miniature version, I'd hate to see the normal one."

"They only put that on the Nitatsu." A gravelly voice said to Kakashi before he had to avoid a large stone fist.

**"Earth Style: Massive Golem Technique"**

"You have to admit it was a petty ingenious plan. Move every rock I created back away from my seal, destroying my original body so I could move my soul to this golem. Now your no match for me copycat!"

"You fool! The only you've done is made yourself a bigger target in an enclosed space!"

"What the hell do you know, demon worshiper!"

**"Earth Style: Golem Technique Earth Flattener"**

The golem Fū slammed his fist against the ground causing a plethora of rock pillars to shoot up from the ground at Kakashi who leapt onto the closest one and leapt off to send out his own attack.

**"Heavenly Prison Fire Sword"**

The golem screamed in pain as his arm was sliced off by Kakashi's sword of fire, before attempting to counter with his remaining arm.

**"Earth Style: Earth Spear"**

Kakashi jumped up onto his arm and ran up to the shoulder, and proceeded to remove it again causing Fū to have the same reaction as before. Kakashi released the jutsu on his arm and created a large wall of the water which he pushed into his opponent.

**"Water Style: Water Formation Wall"**

"Have you completely lost your mind? Every jounin should know that water won't do anything against the earth!" Fū mocked him after he was free from submergence.

Kakashi just smirked under his mask as he prepared his for his killing blow "You seem to be forgetting the fact that all that water was absorbed into your body. And my specialty just so happens to be a heavy conductor."

**"Lightning Style: Black Panther"**

Black lightning sprayed out of Kakashi's body and formed into the shape of a panther, which charged at Fū at an unavoidable speed. The mass of electric chakra crashed into the golem and the water it contained, causing him to burn up in a fiery explosion.

"No! I refuse to fall like this. Not to a copycat like you! Lord Danzō, we were so close! _To becoming gods…_" Fū said as his rocky body crumbled into fire.

"Please, after everything you've pulled over the last 6 years you have no right to call anyone a copycat." Kakashi said as he laid down against the wall and pulled out his copy of Icha Icha, to read it for the first time in years.

* * *

"You can't stop us! Orochimaru-Sama will prevail over you pathetic village. We shall become gods I say! GODS!" Kabuto said as marines placed kairoseki handcuffs on him.

"Just keep walking four eyes."

"I never thought that war would be so fun. Now I know why my dad keeps blabbing on about his old war stories." Ino said to Tenten who was currently picking up and resealing her weapons.

Kiba in the meantime, was bragging to Chouji "Yeah I've been training harder ever since Naruto beat me. Learning new Jutsu, lifting weights."

"Eating dog food."

"Eating dog food, wait what!?" Kiba realized what he had just said.

"Made you say it!" Chouji laughed after he tricked him before getting shaken by the collar of his tin armor.

"Why you fat bastard!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME? I'M NOT FAT!"

Asuma chuckled to himself as the two gennin tussled with each other before a horrible screech filled the air. Everyone around turned in the direction of the noise to see that an at least 100-foot tall raccoon had appeared inside the stadium.

The One-Tailed Raccoon, Shukaku had been awakened.

* * *

**(A/N): Holy Shit! How could this have happened? Well, the good news is you won't have to wait very long to figure out. Now that I'm out of school I fully intend on finishing up the arc. But before I leave you to publish this chapter, there's a few things I need to bring up.**

**1st) Yes I did make fun of Teen Titans Go earlier in the chapter. I apologize to any readers who might happen to be a fan of the show, but I just can't help it. The show just pisses me off. Not because its not like the original. It's because it's painfully unfunny. And with CN constantly advertising it as "our new favorite show" I need let out my irritation.**

**2nd) For those of you who don't know Kishimoto has recently released a sequel to Naruto in the form of a miniseries. I've been keeping track of it and something has caught completely off guard. There's a character I thought I would despise. But after reading, I have to say they are much better than I ever could have expected. And that character is…**

**Sarada Uchiha**

**I'm genuinely surprised at how likable this girl is. Mostly because she's the direct offspring of two of the worst anime characters of all time. But unlike her mother, she's not a complete bitch, and unlike her father she's not an arrogant douchebag. I don't know how it happened. Maybe it was Shizune, maybe it was the fact Sasuke decided to take a note from Finn's dad, I don't know. But she manages to actually nice to the other characters. So that their peers have a good reason to like them.**

**In the meantime, I need to edit and post this chapter before I fall asleep.**

**Next Chapter: Demons Clash: Fox vs Racoon**

**. . .**


	18. Demons Clash: Fox vs Raccoon

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did Sarada would kick Sasuke in his two timing ballsack.**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Chapter 17: Demons Clash: Fox vs. Raccoon**

* * *

While Temari and Kankuro were alerting Baki to Oto's true agenda and Kakashi was in the middle of one of his most gratifying battles yet, in the middle of the plastic floored arena stood two jinchuriki glaring at each other with intense ferocity.

This attention was briefly broken by their proctor who was currently treating his broken hand "We shall now select the arena of your your battle."

Genma used his uninjured hand to press the switch that would start the selection of the rival's fighting ground. The jumbotron above them showed the same wheel as before which spun around until landing on the symbol for fire.

"Well this should be interesting at the very least. Hell, if anything it gives me a greater advantage from what I have planned."

Naruto's confident demeanor angered Gaara, who sent a wave of sand at the swordsman in the same fist-shaped way he used to previously take out the distracted Sasuke.

**"Sunaken"**

"Hey Sparky, I haven't said you could begin yet." Genma said after he spat an explosive senbon into the arm of sand, which destroyed it "Now then, if there are no further interuptions may we begin? Roronoa? Sabaku?"

"Well now I am. All that waiting was pretty boring though, but it did catch me up on my nap." Naruto responded as he tucked away his bottle of sake into his jacket.

When he saw Gaara nod Genma called the beginning of the fight. That was all it took for the sand jinchuriki to start sending waves of sand tendrils at Naruto who simply maneuvered around the attacks or sliced straight through them.

This only further enraged the psychopath he used the single remaining tentacle to fire out more balls of sand at Naruto who continued to deflect the projectiles or just bisect them.

"Is that all you've got, Ketchup Head-teme?" Naruto taunted before he realized the sand he displaced with his katana was rising up and forming into the shape of enormous claws.

**"Multiple Monstrous Sand Arm"**

"That name frickin' sucks!" Naruto yelled at his opponent as the claws tried to crush him in their grasp. Using the Yamakawa-ō and the Shodai Kitetsu, he blocked the attack with all his strength, though he could not escape them due to the exceptional amount of force they were exerting onto him.

As this continued Naruto felt his body getting crushed and a small amount of blood trickling from his mouth, as the strain began to much to bear and Kurama fell from the clench of his teeth. Just when he thought he could get more irratated by the transpiring events, Gaara then began raving.

"What's the matter Cinderface. Can't face the almighty power of a sand biju? To bad your swords can't do anything against a demon's strength!"

"A little early to start your villainous bragging ain't it sandy?" Naruto taunted while under the pressure before finding an escape route in the attack, and rolling out while grabbing Kurama by the tsuka and placing it back in his mouth.

**"Enbima Yonezu Onigiri"**

Naruto charged at his opponent at a breakneck speed with his swords armed and a giant apparition of aura behind him, though he couldn't mange to break through Gaara's shield of sand.

_'Still not fast enough. I'm gonna need to build up some momentum if I want to get past that stupid sand.'_

To Gaara's confusion, a few moments after he hit the sand, Naruto bounced back and flipped into the wall before bouncing off, and resuming the process while being careful to avoid the miniature volcanoes that were sprawled across the fighting ground.

In about two minutes Naruto was running vertically around the walls, making approximately 5 rotations around the arena every half minute. This was just enough to royally piss off the sand controlling jinchuriki, who resumed his attack in an attempt to kill.

**"Sunaken"**

But to his shock, the flock of sand merely hit the wall of granite instead of its intended target. Even more enraged than before, he continued to repeat the attack though he missed every time.

"Hold still so we can get your blood you fox-faced bastard!" Gaara screamed as he kept throwing more sand at the speeding swordsman.

**"Sunaken"**

**"Sunaken"**

**"Sunaken"**

**"Sunaken"**

**"Sunaken"**

**"Sunaken"**

While they were persistent the attacks still failed repeatedly, either missing it's target completely or being blown away by a geyser before it could make contact with anything else. Having finally built up enough energy, Naruto flew off the wall with his swords armed and ready before slicing into his opponent.

**"Santoryu: Rengoku Onigiri"**

The next thing Naruto knew he had slammed himself into the wall of the arena, having to pull himself out of the imprint he had made with the remaining momentum he had built up. He wiped the blood that was made from the crash off his field of vision and chuckled as he saw Gaara on his knees, struggling to breath and bleeding even more than he was.

"No…you broke through my shield and my armor of sand? How did you it? This doesn't make any sense, I'm supposed to be indestructible. I REFUSE TO DIE!"

To Naruto's shock sand began flying around Gaara, but he didn't seem to be controlling it all as opposed to previous assualts. Instead, rock rose from the warm ground before eroding into sand and flowing into his gaping mouth.

Once enough sand had been inhaled Gaara rose, looking refreshed and confident "Well that hit the spot."

"Wwwait a minute what the hell? How did you eat all that sand yet your still alive?" Naruto asked, confused by what he had just had just seen.

"I'd be happy to explain. But before I do, I will have to take a bit of a precaution." Gaara said as he formed a hand of sand around the swordsman "I'm not going to make the same mistake the Hyuuga made. Make one move towards your swords and I kill in a nanosecond."

"Smart move. Now start with your chattering." Naruto said as he pulled his sake from his jacket.

"You see, I was gifted this ability among others from birth, by having a chakra demon known as a biju sealed on inside me with the chakra of my mother. The One Tailed Racoon, Shukaku. This killed my mother, but it brought her new life in the form of the demon. As a result of this I gained the manipulation of a certain element, like all others in my situation mine being sand, to the point where I can even replenish my strength by consuming it. However, this status as a jinchuriki also meant my village saw me as the demon, and made me a pariah amongst my village. To them I was nothing but a relic of the past they wished to get rid of. My father eventually accepted their outcries and at the age of six began making attempts to kill me through assassinations. Every one of which has ended up a lie of sand and blood at my feet. It was around this time I realized I had no current purpose. And if I had no purpose then why did I exist? To exist with no purpose is the same thing as being dead. So I came to the conclusion that I would prove my existence through the murder of others."

"Umm, thanks and all but I didn't need to hear your life story you know. I just wanted to know how you ate that sand. And now that I now, this conversation is pointless." Naruto said as he leapt out of the hand's grasp as it crushed below him.

He flipped onto the ground avoiding more sand continuously attemped to slaughter him from behind. Gaara once again felt more frustration build up as he missed, which finally reached its peak when his sand was once again blown away by a volcano.

Having reached his peak, Gaara let out one of his signature psychotic screeches before raising more quadrillons of grains of sand from the steaming ground, causing even more lava to seep from it. Naruto felt him his muscles paralyze as he began thinking of how to avoid the giant wave of sand converging in on him.

**"Sand Imperial Funeral"**

As the sand closed in on him Naruto smirked before sheathing all three of his katana in fluid movement, and doing multiple handsigns befor releasing a large alcohol fire from his mouth.

**"Fire Style: Sake Flame Bullet"**

Before Gaara could figure out what had happened, a flaming hole was blown through his attack as the the sand melted inside of it.

**"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough"**

Gaara braced himself for what he suspected would be a blazing impact, but found nothing except the air being a bit more stuffy. He opened his baggy eyes and was both shocked and infuriated to find that he'd been imprisoned in a glass ripple.

As he screamed in anger inside the container Naruto quipped to himself "Good thing alcohol works just as well as oil for starting up that jutsu. Now all I have to do is blow a hole through him while he had no access to sand."

With his plan put into action Naruto leapt into the air, arming all three of his swords before releasing his slashes from the tips of his blades.

**"Daibutsi Giri"**

The blow completly blew away the glass prison and barely conscious Gaara away and into the spot of lava. The jinchuriki continued to scream in agony as he laid on the molten rock and it melted his sand armor melted on his skin.

Genma was about to call the match before Gaara let out another mad wail as he stood up with several pounds of youkai and killing intent coming from the Suna-Nin. Naruto had to jump to safer ground as his opponent lifted up nearly the entire stadium's gravel letting the magma flow out from the ground and become lava.

Gaara contiously swallowed more and more of the sand he had formed from the ring's rock like the author of this story would at an all you can eat burger joint with unlimited french fries, until an explosion of youkai large enough to cover the entire arena in steam.

When the smoke cleared Gaara was gone, and in his place was a raccoon like figure that appeared to be made entirely from sand. Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized this from as what had previously taken down Lee in their match.

His anxiety only got worse when Gaara sped across the lava like a bullet, not seeming bothered by the heat at all. Naruto barely had any time to avoid the speeding Shukaku, and even as he flipped over him and dodged the attack he burned his feet on the lava below him.

"Ow, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" Naruto said as he hopped in one leg to a nearby landform of the remaining rock, and blowing on his burned feet. Before he could stand up again, Gaara charged at him across the lava once again.

This time around however Gaara grabbed Naruto with his single tail before he could move out of the raging sand demon's path, and swung it towards the lava, attempting to burn his opponent alive. Before he could make impact withn he molten rock, Naruto armed the Shodai Kitetsu into position before lopping of his tail and escaping.

**"Ittoryu: 36 Pound Pheonix"**

Naruto landed by stabbing Kurama into the wall above the deadly scorching floor, and as Gaara screamed in rage an agony from the temporary loss of his tail, telepathically communicated with his own biju.

_'So Kurama, do you have any idea how to get this psychopath off my ass?'_

**_'Judging by his gloating I'd say that unlike you, he has no idea that there are others out there with the same condition. And now that he's given you an ability you didn't know you had as a jinchuriki, you can turn that against him.'_**

After thinking a bit about what his tenant meant by that, he came to an epiphany and unhitched his weapon pouches from his leg. To the surprise of everyone in the bleachers, Naruto poured the contents of the pouches into his mouth and began eating his weapons like candy.

Moments of awkward silence passed as Gaara grew angrier, thinking the swordsman was mocking him, before a massive explosion of youkai came from him. Youkai all to familiar to the Konoha section of the audience.

**"Wait, what the hell is going on? How are you doing this?" **Gaara asked in a frightened and confused tone.

"Your not the only container on this continent Mr. Tusken Raider, and you just gave me an excellent idea on how to kick your ass!" Naruto said before he resumed screaming as power overtook him. Realizing letting him continue to gather power would be a horrible mistake, Gaara sent another fist of sand across the lava with enough force to kill.

**"Sunaken"**

To Gaara's surprise Naruto managed to completely destroy the attack with a mere backhand. "To little to late Suna-teme." Naruto said as he revealed his current form. He had an entirely new layer on his body which was made of red steel. On his eyes he wore black markings similar to the Kyuubi in its fox form with his eyebrow completly covered by the armor. His spiky blonde hair had been dyed temporarily white by the force of the youkai, and he bore fox like claws on his hand and feet.

**"Iron Kitsune Armor"**

With his body protected from the heat Naruto armed his swords once again and sped across the lava and continued to cut into Gaara by jumping into the air and sending a plethora of vertical slash attacks at the sand monster.

**"Karasuma Gari"**

Despite the strength and ferocity of the attack, Gaara reinforced his shield of sand levitating around him blocking the attack. However he wasn't prepared for another attack from below from a Kage Bushin.

**"Nigiri"**

A gush of blood came from the wound created by the previous attack, and Gaara began screaming in rage once again before releasing his own attack on the swordsman.

**"Sand Drizzle"**

Naruto found that the sand easily put minor dents in his armor, and since he didn't have enough metal to pull it off a second time, he began defending against the sand raining down on him with his swords.

Once the cloud ran out of ammunition, Naruto sheathed all his katana and charged at Gaara with his clawed fist armed and ready to fight.

"This is for you Squidhead-teme,** Jutoryu: Rage of the Lost Soul"**

The sand jinchuriki had to move at an incredibly fast to avoid the metal claws of his rival, eventually deciding to try and flip into the air in an attempt to use his regrown tail to hammer Naruto into the ground.

However Naruto jumped away from the impact and ran up the tail of the pseudo-sand demon, while unsheathing Yamakawa-ō and slashing at his face once again.

**"Ittoryu: Lion's Song"**

This attack was finally enough for the bleeding and scratched up Gaara as he began the last attack on his opponent, gathering some of the last gravel in the arena, along with the last of his own chakra into his mouth. Naruto almost instantly recognized that attack and immediately ran to safer ground.

**"Biju Ball!"**

Gaara bit down onto the ball of dust and chakra, releasing a large beam of youkai from his sand covered and toothy mouth. Naruto barely had enough time to dodge the attack, the steel layer being completely wiped off the right side of his face, though his hair still remained white on both sides of the shield.

When the beam slowed down Gaara was shocked to see that his attack had failed to kill his opponent, or at least injured enough to that he could simply kill him with the Sand Casket. It was at this point where he began to break down, whimpering as he fell into unconsciousness from completely.

Naruto sat down onto the last remaining piece of ground as he sheathed all three of his swords as the Kitsune armor molted away from his body along with the wind and his hair went back to its normal blonde color, panting heavily from the exhaustion, not having spent this much energy in a fight since training with Zoro.

Now that he was sure the match was finished Genma jumped from the edge of the rings wall and onto the same slab of granite Naruto was sitting down upon and called out to the audience.

"Winner of the First Match of the Second Round, Roronoa Naruto."

Unlike most of the other matches in the exams, the reactions to the battle's result were mostly positive. This was most notable in the Suna section of the audience where many of them had been terrorized by the monster they had created for 17 years now.

In the other sections of the audience such as Kumo or Iwa they were just happy to see a good fight. However a large majority of the Kiri audience had already fled the arena in fear upon seeing Gaara's Shukaku form due to their own bad experiences with jinchuriki.

And Konoha's negative reception www already to be expected by the others. After a few seconds though a young girl's voice was heard behind Gaara "You don't want to be wiped from existence do you?"

"No, no I don't mother."

"Then you'll have to fight to stay alive. Wipe your opponent from existence so he won't do the same to you!" The voice said as it slowly revealed itself through the pile of sand forming its human form.

_**'Looks like Shukaku is joining the party. This is gonna suck for everyone.'**_

The Shukaku's human form appeared to be a young and extremely pale girl in a white turtleneck with red marking on the sleeves, with long hair and an insane grin plastered on her face, just as her container.

"So wait, the Shukaku's a girl?"

_**'Duh Gaki, I've said that like 12 times already. And more good news, she's even more crazy than her current jinchuriki. Just what I needed, got anymore sake kid?'**_

Naruto ignored the fox demon's question as Shukaku grabbed Gaara by his pointed raccoon ears and focused her own youkai into him, resulting in his slow growth into a much larger version of the demon he contained, until the Shukaku faded away into chakra inside of him.

This sped up the growth as Gaara continued to insanely wail into the stadium as he unconsciously gathered all the sand he'd lost in the fight thus far, getting larger and larger until he filled up the entire stadium and he was merely an barely awake body sticking out of the Shukaku's forehead.

**"Sedative Jutsu"**

That was the last thing Gaara said before he fell asleep for the first time in 13 years, unleashing the Shukaku in a form small enough to fit into the stadium "Hell yes, I'm finally free! And I know exactly I'm going to kill first. Kurama-teme and that damn brat he's stuck inside of."

_**'Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit. How the hell are we supposed to take this thing on?'**_

_'Well I've taken him down before, all I need to do, is finish her m off a second time.'_

**_'That was Gaara you moron, this is an actual biju, that can actually kill you an instant '_**

_'You seem to be forgetting the fact that she's left her weak spot right open' _Naruto said inwardly to Kurama as he pointed to Gaara, to the confusion of most in the audience. Shukaku knew exactly what he was planning however and began laughing maniacally as miniature versions of herself began climbing out and chargin down her body with intent to kill.

_**'Ok new plan. Considering the fact that those things have a strength level around Sai and just one of him was annoying to fight, I'm going to come into my human form, and we fight our way up to her tail. Then I back into a sword and you get up to her head and slice Gaara awake. Since his seal breaks the moment he falls asleep **_

_'Good idea, except for the fact that a lot of the spectators from Konoha will burn me at the stake if I come even close to breaking the rules of the exams.'_

**_'Toothpick already called you the winner in your match against the Suna jinchuriki, so now it's between us and Shukaku.' _**Kurama his katana form exploded with his own youkai, like Gaara and Naruto had done many times previously in their battle, before began glowing with light and coming undone from Naruto's side, as the light began changing shape.

After about thirty seconds of suspense or confusion amongst the audience, the light dimmed to reveal a man who appeared to be in his early twenties in a pin-striped black suit and a red undershirt, along with a black tie and dress shoes. He had spiky white hair that was swept to the side along with sharp teeth and piercing red eyes.

Most of the older Konoha shinobi and civilians recognized him from eighteen years ago, though the las time they same him he was dead on the battle field, creating a floor of steel to fight on without him or his partner getting burned. Kurama noticed their shock and posed grandeurly to their side of the stadium.

"Presenting the most recent human form of Kurama, The Kyuubi no Kitsune. Ichigo Hatake, and not a blonde-headed shrimp."

Up in the Kage booth, both Sarutobi and "the Kazekage" were incredibly surprised to see someone that they'd thought had been missing for years, alive right before their eyes, spitting out there tea.

Despite this Orochimaru regained composure and got back into character "Was-sn't he the mos-st rec-cent jinchuriki of the Kyuubi Hokage-S-sama; the one who dissapeared when the demon broke free?"

"It appears to be so, Kazekage-Sama, though the biggest shock is how he hasn't appeared to age a day since taking the biju's form." Sarutobi answered while stroking his beard.

"As much as I love to watch you stick it to them Kurama, we have a giant rampaging sand raccoon to take care of." Naruto told his temporary partner combat.

"You never let me have any fun, you know that gaki?" Ichigo responded as he focused chakra into his left arm, turning into a drill to attack his Mini-Shukaku with, stabbing into their chests, before bisecting and dissolving them with a spin kick from his sickle leg.

Naruto put up his hood again and joined the fray with the Shodai Kitetsu and Yamakawa-ō armed in his hands. The Shukaku charged at Naruto in a large pack, only to find themselves knocked back by a spinning motion.

**"Tatsu Maki"**

Once all the Shukaku that had been attacking him dissolved into the wind, Naruto took to the offensive and charged towards multiple clones with his two remaining swords held horizontally parallel to each other.

**"Nigiri"**

Ichigo continued his assault against the army of sand demons, turning his tongue into a large whip-like rapier, which decapitated several of them in one fell swoop. After spitting the sand from his mouth he grumbled to himself "Oh man that's disgusting, why did ever come up with that move?"

He opened his eyes to see another wave of Mini-Shukaku sprinting towards him, and gave an excited smirk before clapping his hands together to make an even larger drill than before.

"Hey gaki, time for the final stand. You clear a spot for me so I can get to this bitch's tail."

Naruto nodded to his tenant as he ran up close to the Shukaku and let a group of it minions surround him. Once they were all in just the right position Naruto unleashed a brutal onslaught of Nitoryu attacks on the demons.

**"Nitoryu: 72 Pound Pheonix"**

**"Taka Nami"**

**"Dai Gekken"**

**"Nitoryu Iai: Rashomon"**

In a matter of seconds all of the Shukaku that were once there had dissolved after being dealt fatal blows by the swordsman's katana. Kurama charged towards Naruto now that the path had been cleared and leapt above him.

Naruto tightened his muscles like he would normally do for a One Gorilla attack and launched Ichigo at their target from his palm. However moment later he realized why the Shukaku had been trying to stall them for so long.

"Kurama, look out! She's going to-"

**"Biju Ball"**

His warning failed to get out in time for Kurama to hear, and he was blown away by the blast, along with his drill and the floor of steel he'd set up for Naruto to avoid burning himself. The demon felt himself loosing consciousness from the strenght of the attack, before a familiar voice cried out.

"Hey, don't just stay there like a dead fish! Transform so Iwecan get up there!" Naruto yelled to the falling biju as he ran vertically up the wall and leaping off.

Ichigo instantly knew what he was planning and focused youkai all around his body and began glowing with light again. He grew massively in size and gained a large difference in shape, until the Louth dimmed to reveal the same fox responsible for the attack on the leaf 18 years ago, though in a much smaller form. But to the confusion and shock of many who believed Naruto and the Kyuubi were one and the same, the former stood atop the beast, running down its forehead.

_**"Alright gaki, you've got about 43 seconds till I'll be fresh out of youkai for a while and turn back into a sword. You think you can get onto him in that amount of time."**_

"Only if you sink your claws into this walking sandbox." Naruto answered to the beast. He responded to this by following the order and biting and scratching at the other biju.

"No! Let go of me you hairy bastard." Shukaku cried as Kyuubi bit into her sandy body, before she felt it fade away in a flash of red light. A smug smile grew across the demon's face before she felt something land on her stomach.

Shukaku looked down to see that Naruto had landed and was running up her with all three of his swords, towards its one true weak spot he could hurt it with. Panicking she sent several more sand tendrils, which caught him by the legs and stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Now I'll rid myself of you and Kurama once and for all!"

Before she could do anything else though, another voice broke out "No! I will prove my existence! You will not deny me of it like you always have mother!"

"No stop, you little shit, I'm the only one who can kill him here!"

With both potential threats preoccupied Naruto aimed at the semi-conscious Gaara and armed his swords "Would you shut the hell up already?! I've abso-frickin'-lutely had it with you!

**"108 Pound Pheonix"**

The slash rannup the Shukakau before slamming into Gaara, shattering his sand armor and causing him to bleed heavily. The Shukaku could only look on in horror as its body began cracking and dissent righting as Gaara lost control of its youkai.

_**"Hahaha! Take that you bitch!"** _Kurama cheered in delight from beyond the katana.

"Laugh it up foxy boy. One day I'll get out of my cage again, but your real name will always mean strawberry." Was the last thing Shukaku could say before completely falling apart into nothing but sand.

Gaara fell onto the final remaining landform, limp and breathing heavily as he glared at his opponent as he landed on the ground with all three of his swords sheathed. With all the energy he had left in his body, he stood up albeit slouching and panting.

"You…_you…_YOU WILL NOT END MY EXISTENCE!" Gaara said as he began controlling the sand around him planning to destroy Naruto once and for all. However mere seconds after he levitated the grains, the fell to the ground like rain.

Naruto smirked at the situation given to him, before getting into position and charging with his final attack ready.

"No, No! NOOOO!"

**"Mutoryu: Blacksmith's Strike"**

Gaara flew back from the blow to the chest, and landed rolling on the ground weak and unable to move. Naruto let out a sigh of relief that his long struggle was finally over, before approaching the drained and unmoving Gaara.

"No, stay away from me. I don't want to die!" Gaara screamed as Naruto walked toward him, only for him to merely sit down, and pull the last of his sake from his jacket.

"Its hard being a jinchuriki isn't it? Everyone hating you, and you have no idea why. Getting kicked out of every store. People torturing and trying to kill you. Stuffing you into Brazen Bulls on your own birthday. It's a rough existence, even for someone who can't feel physical pain like you."

"Why? Why don't you make them acknowledge your existence. Give yourself a purpose of causing the death of others." Gaara responded likely.

"Nah, that would only prove them all right; you'd be a monster for real. But even if there are people making your life a shithole, there's bound to be people who actually care about you."

"There was someone once. Yashamaru-jichan, but he tried to kill me, so then I killed him by accident and he blew himself up."

"Oh…well… what about your Niisan or your Neechan that has the hots for Shikamaru?"

"Them? They've always been afraid of me."

"No offense, but that's probably because you've been an omnicidal maniac since childhood. Just saying that might have something to do with it."

Gaara gave a look of epiphany as the rock and lava around him vanished back into the gray plastic floor. It was then when a group of medical-nin rushed out from the returned stadium doors, and put Gaara on a stretcher.

As the Suna-Jinchuriki was carted off Naruto called out to him "And don't worry about that shoddy old seal, I know a guy who can fix you up with a much better one."

With his toughest battle yet finally finished, Naruto layer down on his back pouring the last of his sake into his mouth. Now that the bottle was emptied of its contents, Naruto threw it up into the air, before slicing in half with Kurama, staring at the light from the midday sun above him.

* * *

**(A/N): Holy crap, it's hard to believe its been almost a year since I began this story. Back then all I had was a terribly written mess and a small one-shot. Since there won't be an author's note next chapter I just wanted to thank everyone who actually stuck with me throughout this story, through every screw up and every break. I have to say that if I had just stuck with the original Voodoo's Disciple and kept this story in production I have no idea where this would have gone in terms of story. Even now it's funny to go back and see how much my writing as a whole has changed through the course of the story. And now I'm just rambling. Seriously though, if it weren't for you guys I would have given up on this story a long long time ago. See you next time.**

**Next Chapter: Epilogue-Conclusion of the Chunin Exams**

**. . .**


	19. Epilogue: Conclusion of the Chunin Exams

**Disclaimer:**** You know the drill by now ;).**

**Arc 1: Tests of Honor**

**Epilogue: The Conclusion of the Chunin Exams**

* * *

About an hour after the near cataclysmic battle between Gaara and Naruto ended in the former's defeat, and the crowd was in an uproar as the exams were about to draw to a close.

Once Gaara had been carted off to the hospital with multiple broken bones and up to 30 cuts in his pale body, Genma called both Shino and Shikamaru down for their match. However Shino was forced to withdraw early on in the fight since the arena chosen was water, and since he had a Devil Fruit that could likely spell death.

The only other match after that was the fight between Naruto and Shikamaru. Though Naruto put up his best effort, he had already spent up almost all of his energy and Kurama's youkai on the previous fights with Neji and Gaara, and was hardly a match for Shikamaru's strategy. In the end, the match ended in a draw with Shikamaru getting cut with the Yamakawa-o, and Naruto briefly passing out from the exhaustion of fighting three worthy opponents in a row. With this tie, the winner automatically gets promoted rule was nixed.

After a long and tedious fight Naruto found himself and his swords ensnared within Shikamaru's jutsu and with little options left Genma was forced to call the fight.

Now almost all of those who had made it this far stood in front of Genma awaiting the results of the exam. Kankuro and Temari looked a bit worse for wear for reasons unknown to those in the stadium, while Neji had the entire upper half of his body covered in bandages.

Naruto looked very beat up due to participating in a majority of the matches that day, but otherwise stood there like nothing had happened to him at all. Shikamaru still had multiple cuts and scratch marks from his fight with Temari, and was forced to endure several more from Naruto before he was cut down by the blonde headed swordsman.

Shino however was completely clean of injury, due to not competing once in the arena that day. Only Sasuke and Gaara were still absent, with the former being treated for a concussion, while the latter was still being treated for the numerous injuries he'd received throughout his own fight.

Now Genma and those in the audience who hadn't left in anger of fled in fear waited patiently for all the nobles to send their opinions to the Kage, who would then vote.

Raido gathered up the results and shushined down to Genma who nodded and began his speech in his loud accented voice "After over a month of hard fighting our final contestants that aren't in the hospital stand before you. For any of you who are daimyos, your notes may have influenced how the Kage voted. But if you aren't, then well you don't have much of a say. The examinees must have at least a three out of five score to be promoted. Now all I have to do his use this lighter which is linked by chakra to the snail transponder jumbotron, to burn the results given to me aaaaaannnnnddd."

When the paper was nothing but ashes in Genma's palm, the jumbotron began a loading screen. The crowd waited anxiously to see the results, which later turned to irritation as the screen took at least five minutes.

Finally having enough of waiting Genma threw a small rubber ball from his weapons pouch at the bottom corner of the jumbotron box. This somehow triggered the display of the votes.

**_Roronoa Naruto: 4/5_**

**_Neji Hyuuga: 2/5_**

**_Sasuke Uchiha: 0/5_**

**_Gaara Sabaku: 3/5_**

**_Shino Aburame: 1/5_**

**_Kankuro Sabaku: 1/5_**

**_Shikamaru Nara: 4/5 _**

**_Temari Sabaku: 3/5_**

Upon seeing the results on the screen, many Suna and Konoha ninja began cheering rapid fire, while dignitaries and shinobi from other countries or seas simply stood and applauded quietly.

Others in the audience were less than satisfied with the results, and either grumbled silently to themselves or booed openly; these mostly came from either Sasuke supporters or diehard Naruto haters, many of the latter targeting him specifically with their jeers.

"Unbelievable, even after Kurama makes it perfectly clear we're two different beings, they still treat us like we're one in the same." Naruto griped as he face palmed.

"Well, to be fair even when he's just a sword your still working together as a team. Not that it makes the people who think your him any less troublesome to be around."

"That's true. Hey Cathead-San what's up with you?" Naruto asked as he noticed his former competition kneeling on the ground looking put down.

"_Only one person voted for me… damnit._"

"Well what did you expect you fool. You didn't even compete once in the entire tournament, and the one time you had a chance you forfeit for no good reason." Neji told the depressed Suna-Nin.

The Hyuuga got slightly irritated when he heard a chuckling coming from Shikamaru and turned around to face him "And what's so funny to you Nara-San"

"Oh nothing, it's just that you think you can make fun of him, when out of the ones who actually fought your the only one who didn't make chunin." Shikamaru pointed out, resulting in Neji joining Kankuro in his depression.

"Really Neji, letting such a little insult get the better of you? Your so pathetic." Naruto said jokingly. But to his surprise, Neji swiftly got up into a kneeling position.

"You are correct Cinderface-sama. I apologize deeply for my insolence. For this and my other transactions against you and Hinata-sama, I am in your debt."

"…I think I'm more scared now than I was while fighting Raccoon Godzilla." Naruto said embarresed at the Hyuuga's proclamation of a life debt.

"Hey Roronoa, Nara, you're going to need to come with me to the Hokage's office for some official business as a new chunin" Genma asked of the two Konaha graduates.

"Umm alright." Naruto followed Genma into the tunnel before noticing that Shikamaru wasn't following "Hey Shikamaru, you coming or what?"

"Actually Naruto I've got other plans. But tell the old man that I want to be placed on Division 6." Shikamaru said while eying the equally bashful Temari with a blush.

While he was a bit confused as to what he meant by "Division Six" he easily figured out what he was trying to hide and said as loud as possible "Got that, have fun on your honeymoon."

"Damn it, what a drag." Shikamaru said as red as a beet.

"It's-s quite funny how one of the mos-st popular candidates this year didn't receive a single vote." Orochimaru kidded to the Kage, though underneath his disguise he was absolutely livid at the results.

"Well, that's not to say he didn't deserve every bit of what he got. Though this is probably going to get your chewed out by your Civillian Council, eh Sarutobi?" Onoki said to his old friend.

"Don't remind me. Though I still must wonder what happened with the voting. Usually the winner's vote is unanimous."

"Oopsies, my finger must've slipped." The kazekage said sheepishly. The only one not talking about the results was the Vice Admiral who was currently very deep in thought. The mohawked man walked away down the corridor while taking a small transponder snail out of his pocket.

Hearing the noise from his corner Kakashi awoke, took the book off his face, and pulled his mask back up to its normal spot. The masked Tobetsku Jounin walked out of the hallway to see Naruto conversing with the others, and smiled under his mask.

Seconds after thoguh, the smile turned into the most hate-filled scowl as he felt the familiar presence of Danzō Shimura walking towards him. The latter didn't seem to notice as he was too enraged to care. This changed in about a millisecond when the corrupt politician noticed a red light coming from Kakashi's direction, at which point he dashed off as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

This wasn't enough to deter the livid copy-nin from sending a large blast of red lightning from the tips of his fingers, which pierced straight through Danzō and sent him straight to the floor, coughing up blood.

He tried to get up with the usage of his cane, he felt the same killing intent in front of him and much closer. Danzō looked above to see Kakashi glaring at him with all the hatred in his body.

"That was just a taste of what's to come you old fart. I may not be able to do much of anything to you in public, but I wouldn't recommend sleeping with that filthy eye of yours closed. Actually, scratch that; you won't have time to sleep tonight."

With his warning given, Kakashi made a tiger seal with his hands and vanished in a flash of leaves and red lightning. Danzō felt himself shaking once again, though this time it was both with rage and fear. He brought himself up and stomped away from the stadium planning to move away as far as he could possibly get.

On his way down the stairs he heard a voice coming from further up the flight "Well I think it's safe to say that this phase of the plan came to a crashing halt once again."

"Damn that Ichigo; even when he's dead the bastard still won't stop being a thorn in my side. And now his niisan is actively going against me. They're almost as annoying as those damn Namikaze!"

"Well if your that pissed off with Kakashi-San just kill him already." Tobi suggested to his partner in crime.

"Why don't you do it you lazy shit? You're stronger than both me and Orochimaru combined!"

"Because thanks to one of your men Kakashi is a Logia. Since I can't use Haki the only way I could kill him is with kairoseki, and I'm also a Devil Fruit user so it would be a Devil Fruit user." The masked man explained "But you have kairoseki on the tip of that cane of yours, but instead you let him get away with the entire base of our organization."

Danzō's eyes widened with shock when he realized that Kakashi not only knew their base of location of their headquarters, but also their own identities. However he quickly came up with an idea while an evil grin formed on his face.

"There's only one thing we can do. Completely erase the evidence by destroying Kûmèn Temple. But first remove any prisoners on the east side of the tower, to replace the Shotatsu lost in the invasion."

"Then what about the political prisoners on the west side?" Tobi asked.

The bandaged chairman responded with a widening of his grin and a sadistic look in his eye "Trap them inside. It's their proper fate for defying greatness like me."

He immediately regret his order when he heard footsteps from behind. Danzō turned around to see the lieutenant of Division 6 and the Hokage's intelligence consultant Raido Namiashi.

Suprisingly though, Danzō didn't seemed bugged by this and instead turned around to say "Well Tobi, allow me to introduce you to one of my most loyal ROOT agents and Nitatsu. He will be assisting you in your destruction of our headquarters and all its records."

"Hmhm. Yes Danzō-sama" Raido said to his superior in a voice equally sadisctic as his.

* * *

Naruto leapt from building to building with Genma for the "official business". Though Genma seemed to be telling the truth, Naruto still kept his guard up in case of a trap.

Once they approached the capital building of the village, Genma trailed up to the top and kept running vertically up the Hokage Monument. Since Naruto hadn't done that technique in years, and he couldn't climb with the usage of his swords (for obvious reasons) he used any rocks jutting from the statue to make his way up.

After making it to the top, he saw Genma pulling some papers out of his pockets " If I recall correctly Shikamaru told you to sign him up for Division 6 correct. However due to your rigged education in the Academy along with spending six years outside of the village, it's plausible that you have no clue what that means""

"Unfortunately no, please explain what Division 6 means." Naruto requested from the the jounin.

"After the first two Shinobi World Wars, Sandaime-sama invented thirteen sections of Shinobi composed of chunin and jounin to protect the public. Whenever a genin is promoted they have to sign up into one of the squads. In each one there's a captain and lieutenant. Need anymore explanation?"

"Yeah, the whole 13 squads things sounds a bit too familiar for comfort. I know I've heard it in a story more than once." Naruto explained his confusion awkwardly.

"Well, Hokage-sama came up with the system based on a story his sensei the Nidaime told him about a man named Kurosaki, a shinigami who first held the title of the World's Greatest Swordsman. It's quite popular with swordsman, so that's probably why you've heard it before."

When he finished his explanation Genma held out the papers and said "Now it's time for you to sign up for one of the squads."

Naruto took to the paper from the jounin's hand and read through the possible options for his squad. It didn't take him to long to pick a squad, based off an offer he'd recieved the previous night.

_Konoha Gotei 13:_

_Division 1:_

_Captain: Jiraiya_

_Lieutenant: Vacant_

_Division 2:_

_Captain: Asuma Sarutobi_

_Lieutenant: Kurenai Yuhi_

_Division 3: X_

_Captain: Anko Umino_

_Lieutenant: Vacant_

_Division 4: _

_Captain: Tsunade Senju_

_Lieutenant: Shizune Katō_

_Division 5:_

_Captain: Inoichi Yamanaka_

_Lieutenant: Genma Shirunai_

_Division 6:_

_Captain: Shikaku Nara_

_Lieutenant: Raidō Namiashi_

_Division 7: _

_Captain: Tsume Inuzuka_

_Lieutenant: Hana Inuzuka_

_Division 8:_

_Captain:Tsubaki Kenkyusha_

_Lieutenant: Ebisu Kunisada_

_Division 9:_

_Captain: Chouza Akimichi_

_Lieutenant: Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane_

_Division 10:_

_Captain:Hiashi Hyuuga_

_Lieutenant:Tokuhei Hyuuga _

_Division 11: _

_Captain: Maito Gai_

_Lieutenant: Hayate Gekko_

_Division 12: _

_Captain:Shou Tucker_

_Lieutenant: Isaribi_

_Division 13:_

_Captain: Cat _

_Lieutenant: Panda_

"So you're going with squad 3. Wouldn't be my choice, but whatever. You already know where I'm stationed." Genma said with a grin before shushining away.

With his now ally gone from the monument, Naruto sat down and began pondering what he should do next. Eventually he pulled a sharpening stone from his pocket and began fixing the damage done to the Yamakawa-o in his fights with Gaara and Neji.

About 15 minutes later he had not only sharpened the Yamakawa-o, but the Shodai Kitetsu and Kurama as well. It was then when he really began to think of what he was going to do next.

"Let's see, I could always just go home and take a nap, but a lot of people still hate me so if they're drunk they won't intend on giving me any rest. And since today's a festival, they'll likely be hammered. A mission wouldn't be so bad; now that I'm a B-rank I can go on B-rank with Anko-senpai's permission."

His idea of going out on a job, was quickly stopped when he felt a crick in his leg and remembered that Kurama likely hadn't finished all the small cracks in his bones from his fight with Gaara.

The gears in his head continued to turn before he felt a clawed hand placed, and a familiar friendly voice from behind him "Hey Naruto, what's up? 'Heard you got made a chunin while we were out of the stadium."

"Oh hey you guys. I'm just up here trying to figure out what to do next." Naruto said aloofly as he turned around to see Chouji and Ino along with Kiba patting him on the back with Akamaru next to him.

"Do you know where Hinata is? I haven't really seen her in a month." The swordsman asked with a faint blush, which didn't go unnoticed by the Inuzuka on his back.

Kiba stood up and began mocking his comrade "Ooo, looks like the guy wanted by the World Government wants some lovin' time with the sexy Hyuuga-Hume. Mwah mwah mwah-AAAAAHHHHH!"

Before Kiba could be cut by Naruto, Akamaru jumped on his master to shut him up, sparing him another trip to the hospital. While Akamaru grappled his master to prevent him from saying anything stupid, Chouji brought his own suggestion to the table.

"We could gather up the rest of the gang and go to Yakiniku Barbecue, or Ichiraku Ramen. All we'd have to do is get Asuma-sensei to pay for it all."

"Nice idea, but you still have indigestion from that mission against the Akatsuki a few days ago. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go without you." Naruto egged the Akimichi on, much to his annoyance.

"That's not funny you bastard!"

Naruto pondered his next move as the suggestions didn't really get him anywhere, but then the swordsman remembered a promise he'd made to a defeated opponent earlier that day. He stood up and began walking south of the monument platform.

"Hey where you going Naruto?" Kiba asked after getting Akamaru off of him.

"I need to go visit Gaara. I promised him that I'd get someone to fix the seal keeping the Ichibi inside his soul." Naruto explained to his friends "You want to come with me? He's not a bad guy once you get to know him…or beat the crap out of him with the personification of a sword."

"Sorry man, I don't think I could be very fair to the guy after what we saw in the forest of death. I'm just not as strong or smart as you or Hinata." Kiba explained regretfully with a look like he was remembering trauma in his eyes.

"Alright, I understand. Ino, Chouji you want to come?" Naruto asked of them. Both of the teammates nodded in agreement.

However moments later, Ino grimaced as a horrible feeling came across her skin. After the feeling stopped she approached Kiba and sternly ordered him "Listen up dogbreath, I just had a really bad feeling that something terrible is about to happen with the Hyuuga clan. So what you're going to do is find Hinata-chan and Neji-San.""

"Wait how do you know that they're in trouble anyways?" Kiba asked irritabily with Akamaru barking in agreement.

"You should listen to her Kiba. The people of the Yamanaka clan have a really good understanding of the human mind along with strong ESP. When they have a feeling something bad's about to happen, they're usually right."

When Naruto made this clear, Kiba gained a look of horrible shock on his face and immediately saddled up onto his dog and ordered him to head as fast as he could to Hyuuga clan compound, which Akamaru did.

"Sorry Naruto-kun, but I don't feel comfortable with leaving this up to Kiba. Can you visit your hot friend without us?" Ino asked her fellow blonde.

"Um sure." Naruto stated confused at a certain part of her request.

With permission given by the swordsman, Chouji and Ino headed after Kiba. Though on the way Chouji couldn't resist the opportunity to tease his teammate "So you find the suna-nin-*pfffft*-hot?"

"Shut up or I'll make that fat lip of yours even fatter!" Ino threatened.

"I'M NOT FAT, I'M CHUBBY!"

Now in almost complete solitude, Naruto headed out to the hospital. Little did they know that a marine was hiding underneath the platform with a mini-transponder snail in the palm of his hand.

"Vice Admiral Momonga, I've spotted Cinderface. If what I've heard is right he's heading to the Hyuuga compound." The man said into the snail.

It only took a few seconds for the snail to yell back in the voice of his superior "Well what the hell are you waiting for! Meet me on the most commonly used path over there and will form a perimeter around it!"

* * *

It took about ten minutes for the small group of gennin to the wall of the Hyuuga compound and stood in front of it in anxiety "So this is the place Kiba?"

"Well duh I've been here like five times already when me and Shino visit Hinata, I think I'd know what it looks like!" Kiba yelled at his larger friend "Now all we have to do is figure out to get into the place."

"I could always turn into a titan with my Expansion Jutsu!"

"No can do. This place's security has been airtight ever since… well you know. The only way we've even managed to get this far is since I made clones on the other walls so all the security will be focused on them."

"Wait just a second, I have a plan! I'll use that hole to fire my Mind Transfer Jutsu onto a passerby and when I've figured out what we need to know I'll go back to my own body!" Ino explained her plan to the others.

Kiba however was skeptical "Are you kidding me?! You can't hit anyone through such a small hole; it's almost microscopic!"

"Move over" Chouji said, simply and sharply as he ushered Kiba away from the hole. He did a quick ram seal along with a snake one before pressing his hands up against the hole in the wall and focusing his chakra into it.

**"Outside Expansion Justu"**

When the jutsu was finished the tiny hole grew to a greater size, though not large enough to where a size difference could be seen from the other side "Holy shit man? When did you learn how to do that?"

"I wasn't just picking my nose for a month while everyone else (except Sakura) was getting stronger you know!" Chouji stated before moving out of the way so Ino could move into position.

Once some random Main Branch clansmen walked past the peephole the platinum blonde Yamanaka activated her technique.

**"Mind Transfer Jutsu"**

Ino opened her eyes and found herself on the other side of the wall. She looked around a bit before speaking in a new masculine voice "I hate it when I have to transfer into a guy. I always miss my sexy bod. Oh well, it's worth it to get this mission done for Hinata."

After she was through monologuing to herself Ino continued down her path. She quietly forged through the sounds of the compound, listening for any suspicious conversations. Though there was absolutely nothing for a long period of time see heard a man say drunkinly.

"_Did you hear about what happened at the Chunin Exam Finals today? That stupid ass Neji got himself beaten by the demon._"

"_I know right? He should die for disgracing our noble clan with such a pathetic defeat. To bad that Hinata broad took the Caged Bird Seal off him before we could finish the dick off." _The other man slurred just as drunkenly as his clansmen.

_"I'm just happy that they're thinking of executing that bitch in his place, so at least we'll be getting some justice today."_

_"Nah, didn't you here? They're pawning the broad off to the Uchiha, and the betrothal will be approved by Elder Noburu tonigh. It's a shame someone so damn hot has to get married. I would've liked to see more of her if you know what I mean." _The drunk man said suggestively.

That was Ino needed to hear. But before she went back to her own body she turned the corner and pointed her jutsu sign at the two men _"What the hell are you doing, you Side Branch lackey?"_

**"Mind Liquification Jutsu"**

Once she had finished the last part of her job Ino returned to her own body. But to her surprise Chouji and Kiba were nowhere to be found. The kunoichi looked around for any sign of her comrades, before an ear-piercing scream came from the woods that give Konaha its name.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH."

"That sounded like Kiba!" Ino said to herself before charging back into the woods to see what had happened. It didn't take long for her to find Chouji's bleeding and bullet ridden body.

"Chouji, what happened here?" Ino asked, both concerned and fearful of what might of occurred to cause this before having to avoid a bullet, which managed to graze her skin.

"Ino Yamanaka am I correct? It's a shame I have to kill such a close friend of Hinata-sama, but I am bound by my pact to the main branch decision as lieutenant of Division 10." A Side Branch Hyuuga male with bushy green hair that was held up by his headband, and multiple firearms strapped to his flak jacket.

With no more explanation needed, Ino reached in her weapons and tossed an assortment of kunai and shuriken. Toukuhei immediately reacted by pulling twin pistols out from his sleeves and firing on them with his Byakugan turned on.

He then aimed for Ino's chakra points and began firing on them, with intent to knock them out. Unfortunately for him Ino immediately recognized what he was doing and began deflecting the bullets with a kunai, stopping all but one in her right leg.

She felt that leg get paralyzed in an instant and knelt down before attempting to perform her signature jutsu, but found that focusing her chakra caused excruciating pain where she had been shot. When the pain stopped she found Tokuhei standing over her.

"I commend on you on your bravery with challenging me. But we're in entirely different leagues. I'm sorry we had to meet like this, Ms. Yamanaka." The lieutenant told his opponent while taking what appeared to be an elephant tranquilizer from his shoulder, and shooting her in the shoulder.

The last thing Ino saw before losing consciousness was Tokuhei approaching Kiba and Chouji's body's in their comatose states.

* * *

Through the shades of his hospital room, light came onto Gaara, who lay silently on his hospital bed pondering what he had been doing all these years, as well as what was to come.

He was broken from his thoughts when the door to the hospital was kicked off its hinges and out the window onto the wares of an unfortunate merchant.

"My cabbages!"

"Oh, hello Naruto. Why did you-" Gaara asked aloofly to what would normally make a person seem completely insane.

"Kick down the door. People usually don't let me into places cause of my bounty or my tenant, so I make it a habit to force my way through. It certainly helps when I forget my keys inside the house."

"…Well that was certainly an interesting statement, but I was actually going to ask, how did you create a weapon from your biju?"

"Oh." Naruto droned, embarresed from completely missing the point "Well you'll need a better seal to do it without…you know…dying. But a connection with your demon is also necessary so you can seal its soul and chakra into the weapon."

"Yes, a connection with your demon. I actually tried to connect with the Shukaku before you came in here." Gaara revealed, though this time it was much duller than his previous statements.

Naruto took notice of this and began to press for more information "And what happened?"

"…She said something I wish I never heard of."

It it was at this point Naruto was starting to get a touch fearful of what was said "What did she say?"

Gaara gulped and looked down upon his lap before speaking of the message given to him earlier that afternoon **_"In a few months you will have let one of the people closest to you die."_**

A few moments after he said that Naruto showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever "Well that's a load of bullshit."

"wwWhat?" Gaara asked, shocked by his friends response.

"Shukaku seems like a real pissant to me, so she's probably just spouting bullshit to make you feel bad since your a large part of the reason me and Kurama were able to beat her in the first place."

Naruto took his still covered Shodai Kitetsu and pressed the tip of the sheath against Gaara's forehead, poking him repeatedly "Use your head stupid!"

"OK I GET IT YOU JERK! STOP POKING ME WITH THAT DAMN THING BEFORE I CRUSH YOU!" Gaara screamed at Naruto before he burst out laughing "HAHAHAHA! You-haha-piece of shit, I- hehe-HATE YOU SO DAMN MUCH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It only took a few seconds for him to start sobbing and laughing at the same time "You jerk *sniff*, I'M SO HAPPY TO BE ALIVE!"

"I am too. You know we've both gotten a lot of things lately. I'm hoping this is just life cutting us a break. Otherwise we might end up as spoiled and arrogant as Sasuke-teme."

"Yeah, that would suck worse than getting cut with your demon weapon, and I know full well that burns!"

"Well if you want to get your own demon weapon I know a girl who could hook you up with one that Shukaku would fit right into."

"Hey Naruto-San is it just me or do we sound drunk right now?" Gaara asked with tears still leaking from his eyes.

"That's actually not possible. I ran out of sake earlier today, and even if I didn't it wouldn't matter. Jinchuriki can't get drunk!"

Both men began to life wildly as Naruto reminisced on a similar situation he had back at Water 7. It was a few days before he'd received his bounty. Sanji was cooking mizu-mizu meat, Chopper and Luffy fooled around with chopsticks, the Franky Family and Galley-La shipwrights showed up with the giants, Usopp sang his Sogeking song, Robin kept to herself, while he and Zoro ate large quantities of meat and booze and making fun of each other and the crew, which eventually escalated into a three way fight with each other and Sanji.

"Cinderface-senpai we've got trouble." Hiashi said as he barged through the door to the hospital room.

"Oh great your here." Naruto said distatefuly, completely remembering what he put Neji through before recalling the omen Ino got earlier that afternoon and got up from the desk.

"Wait a minute roujin? Did something happen with Hinata."

"Hinata-San? Isn't she that Hyuuga-hime you have the hots for?" Gaara asked genuinely confused at what was going on.

Naruto however was less than amused with his fellow jinchuriki's question "Oh great now they've got you doing it."

"Unfortunately yes. Guilt overwhelmed me after I had to relive the death of Otouto, so I taught the Seal Release jutsu to Hinata so she could make ammends with Neji. But Elder Noburu-me wanted Neji executed with the seal for disgracing the clan by losing to you."

"Hold up, they're not going to put the damn thing back on him are they."

"No, the Caged Bird Seal is like the chicken pox. Once you get rid of it, you can't get it again. So Elder Noburu is going to punish Hinata by betrothing her to Sasuke, through executive decision, which even I can't fight. Then they'll just give the heir position to someone who'll listen to them."

"Are you serious, the Hyuuga clan government actually has the power to do that?" Gaara asked, shocked at the state of his allied villages political system.

"That's the gist of it, and the worst part is that the Hokage can't intervene. Danzō's put expert guards around his palace due to a depression from letting the real Kazekage die." Hiashi continued to explain.

"And with a corrupt man like Danzō working with him, Noburu can run the clan against you in anyway he see fits. But what doesn't make sense is that Jiisan is pretty suspicious of Bandages-teme, so why doesn't he use the evidence against him to put him away." Naruto pondered.

"The answer to that may be fairly simple. Corrupt politicians who have illegal dealing usually erase any evidence after it becomes of no use to them. And since eyewitness reports have become fairly unreliable with the rise of Devil Fruits and genjutsu, physical evidence to be presented along with it and vice versa." Gaara explained

"Are you serious! No matter how many people have seen what that shitsack has done, if there's nothing we can do to get rid of him?!" Naruto screamed in confused rage.

"That's what it is simplified. Being one of three heirs to the title of Kazekage I have to know these things. But back to the subject at hand, what does Naruto-san have to do with this subject?"

"Simple; Division 3, his division revolves around interrogation and assassination. And you are the only one I'd want to complete this mission." Hiashi then got down to his knees an continued to beg "Roronoa Naruto, assassinate Elder Noburu and save my daughter from marrying that bastard. Without his signature the betrothal can't go forward."

"Well duh! I was going to do it even if you didn't ask! But I still need to get permission from Anko-senpai before I start the mission." Naruto explained his situation.

"No need Gaki!"

All three men turned to the window and saw the new captain of Division 3, Anko Mitarashi standing in the frame with a playful grin and a stick of dango stuck in her mouth "Hey there Gaki, Suna-Gaki, Old fart. Just took care of some sick serial killer shit being held in G-1. Got a confession out of him and sent him on his way to Impel Down."

"That's interesting…" Hiashi said, shocked at how easily she talked of her occupation, but even more so with how casually the others responded, before realizing one was an omnicidal maniac until just a few hours ago, and the other was tortured half his life, and on the lam from the World Government while acting as a bounty hunter for most of the latter half.

"So Old Fart, any more information that we'll need to know to make a game plan?" Anko asked as she hopped from the window.

"Well for starters, Noburu has pulled one of his 'executive decisions' to put every Main Branch shinobi under his control and is using the Caged Bird Seal to do the exact same thing to the Side Branch. Even my own lieutenant is under his heel. And from what I hear he's hired Sasuke Uchiha to guard one of the main paths to Hyuga clan compound and capture anyone who is close friends with you or Hinata."

Naruto felt a grin filled with hatred spread across his face when he heard his arch-enemy's name and clicked Kurama from his sheath "So Sasuke-teme is going to be there. I've been waiting to kick his ass for awhile now."

"Well than what are you waiting for. You and I'll take the main path where Uchiha is waiting for us. Neji and Gaara and Hiashi will take two other paths." Anko explained.

"There's a small flaw in your plan Anko-San. I can't move my legs."

Anko anticipated that he would bring this up and proceeded to tossed him a sake bottle filled with sand "That should solve that. Now let's go save your girlfriend gaki!"

"She's not my-oh I give up." Naruto resigned himself as Hiashi charged out the hospital room.

Gaara drank the sand and felt his blood begin to speed up in his legs and stood up from his hospital bed looking more lively than he had in his life "Ok, no need to show off Suna-gaki, time to get your ass moving!"

"Yes Anko-San." True to his word, Gaara obeyed the Third Division captain and hopped out the window, towards his rendezvous with Neji. And with nothing left to do, Anko and Naruto headed out for their own start of the last battle of the day.

* * *

"So your telling me that little shit killed Ibiki, and we can't even charge him with it?! I'm going to wring off his neck!" Anko said angrily as she ran down the dirt path.

The swordsman answered to her wishes as they closed in on the business district "That's going to be pretty easy since he's a Logia. The hard part is making sure he dies from it."

"Not when you have Armor Haki like we do!"

They only made it a few seconds into the district before a large torrent of fire was shot at them, which they split up to avoid. It didn't take Vegapuhk to tell who it was attacking them.

**"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu"**

Naruto pulled Kuruma out from its sheath and stuck him into the flame, completely dispelling the attack and allowing him to move forward against Sasuke, who stood with his sharingan on, atop the roof of a nearby shop.

"Sasuke-teme, I would say that you should get out of my way before this gets ugly, but we both know that wouldn't be any fun." Naruto taunted as he brought Kurama into position.

"Why in hell would I move out of your way, when I'm superior to you Dobe? A genius prodigy like me wouldn't dare dirty themselves by giving way to demon scum like you!" Sasuke hatefully responded to the swordsman "Only an elite like me deserves true power, which is why you will give me your weapon, your rank, and your demon to go with your woman. You know, the one who you are here for? But it's pointless anyways; I've been trained by one of the best ROOT has to offer, and such a hot piece of ass should only belong to an eli-

That last remark got the arrogant Uchiha blasted by a rage-filled slash back into the wall behind "DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF HER LIKE THAT TEME!"

**"Futan Ryoukin!"**

Naruto hopped up and began shooting multiple slashes at an almost turret like rate with only Kuruma. Sasuke had only a little time to melt down his arms and turn them into a golden shield.

However after the first few blows, the slashes ripped through the gold like tissue and struck the Uchiha. He rose from the debris covered in blood, and glared ruthlessly at the swordsman standing in front of him.

"You dare attack me like that Dobe?" Sasuke growled in a murderous tone.

"Well duh this is a fight. You know the thing were the point is to try and hurt each other? How come I always have to explain these things?" Naruto verbally retaliated before the Uchiha performed the handsigns for his next attack.

**"Hiding in Mist Technique"**

True to the jutsu's name, Sasuke expelled a large quantity of mist from his mouth which completely covered the battleground "Even after all these years, this technique is no less familiar. You ripped this right from Zabuza didn't you Sasuke-teme?"

"So what if I did? He should be honored to give me his technique!" He said under the cover of the mist "He was nothing but a fool who did not know that you should always listen to your betters, as they are always superior, but I still gave him that honor. But I guess that's a trend with swordsman, always foolishly defying the pecking order."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked of his hidden opponent, getting more and more infuriated by the second.

"Isn't it obvious? You defy me by trying to stop my marriage to the Hyuuga bitch, Zor and his crew of trash defied the World Government and also me by training a Dobe like you instead of a great man like me, and I already explained Zabuza."

**"Shinigami Harikēn!"**

True to the attack's name, the sword began forming an apparition of a large reaper with a large scythe. Naruto swung his sword down onto the roof with the apparition's weapon coming down simultaneously, completely destroying the roof and the building.

He jumped down from the building where the owner was screaming angrily at him, before he was launched up in the air by Sasuke, who popped out of the rubble while preparing his next attack.

**"Wind Style: Golden Twister"**

Sasuke formed a golden staff above his head and began spinning it around, forming a twister which sucked up the debris and was thrown at Naruto. The latter instantly realized that besides a slight name change, was ripped straight from the scroll of Asuma Sarutobi.

**"Sanzen Sekai"**

Naruto took little time to unsheath his other two swords, and get into position of attack to defend against the tornado of rubble. Once it was blown away Naruto sheathed Yamakawa-o and Shodai Kitetsu back up and went back onto the offensive.

**"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson"**

The swordsman charged forward and swiftly cut into Sasuke, who screamed in rage upon being cut and burned by Kuruma once again. Naruto turned around to attack again but saw Sasuke charging at him with his hand turned into a red hot gold hammer. Though fast, Naruto had no time to defend against the attack and was burned.

**"Judgement of Perfection"**

After recovering from the recoil Sasuke stood over Naruto with a smug grin on his face, as the swordsman bit into his burn "Now do you see Dobe? You can never beat me no matter how much stronger you get, because I am simply better than you. I am much more deserving of the Hyuuga-hime, more deserving of such a powerful sword, and more deserving to be a Jinchuriki. Because I am a genius and your nothing but worthless Dead-last that not even his own parents wanted. So when I give you an order, you better damn well obey it, because I am superior to you."

After that speech, Sasuke expected Naruto to immediately surrender the fight along with his swords, his demon, and most importantly his pride to him. However, to the Uchiha's surprise Naruto began to lightly chuckle.

"Damn Sasuke-teme, all that air wasted just to prove how foolish you are. First off, since this is the most important thing, Hinata-chan is not some sort of medal that you flaunt around. She is a living human being that has her own free will and can decide what she wants to do. Second, don't talk about being a container likes it's a best thing in the world. You have no clue what a large percentage of us have had to go through in our lives. I understand that seeing your entire family massacred before your eyes can't equal happy childhood, but just because you have a certain name doesn't mean your better than anyone, especially with what you've done!…But then again, there are a few upsides to having Kuruma in my mind. *chucklechuckle* Like the ability to gain power by eating metal is pretty damn cool!"

The moment he mentioned that last part, Sasuke realized why he was biting his arm and guarded with an even larger shield of gold then before, while Naruto charged one last attack and swung Kuruma in the direction of the shield.

**"360 Pound Cannon"**

As expected, the slash tore through the gold leaving Sasuke a bloody mess knocked into the wall of a nearby shop, unconscious and defeated "Sadly, that was one of my least challenging fights today."

"Nice job gaki, you really showed that sexist bastard!" Anko praised her subordinate as she walked up and patted him on the back.

"Wait where were you while I was cutting him up and knocking down buildings?"

"Oh, I figured you could take him on by yourself so I went to get some dango for the road."

_'Well it's nice that she has this much confidence in me at least.'_

"NOOOOOOOOO!" To neither of their surprise Sasuke was standing up from the rubbl, fully conscious with his curse mark spreading across his face with an enraged look on his face.

"Look's like Sasuke-teme is back for a second round."

The nettled Uchiha raised his hands in the air with a tiger seal "I refuse to lose to you! I'll blow you away with everything I've-"

Sasuke was completely unprepared for a pair of kairoseki handcuffs to come flying out and lock his hands together, making it impossible to use his devil fruit powers or perform any hand seals.

"There he is Vice Admiral, the one who was hurting my Sasuke-kun! Arrest him now!" Naruto recognized the voice and turned around to see that Sakura was standing there pointing at him, with Vice Admiral Momonga and a full army of Marines.

"Well that is the point of a fight, isn't it?"

"Exactly my point!" Naruto said to the Vice Admiral before he approached him.

"You've caused quite a bit of trouble in your lifetime. But I guess the fact that you received your bounty at the age of 16." Momonga said to him.

"That's right. He's nothing but a filthy criminal Dobe and should rot in jail for defying me." Sasuke said as the curse mark retracted and some random marine undid his cuffs.

"Technically that's not a crime. But assisting the only known group of people to declare war on the World Government and this much property damage definitely is."

"Yeah, arrest that demon!"

"Throw him Impel Down!"

"Execute him!"

"Cut his head off!"

"Have him drawn and quartered!"

"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT UP!?" Momonga snapped, fed up with being ordered around you the villagers "Interupting me like that; what's in the water to make the people in the South Blue so rude."

"So you plan on arresting my subordinate Vice Admiral?" Anko asked the man herself.

"Actually, we've come up with a new plan. While he shows disdain for select residents, he has allied himself with the Shinobi Corps of Konoha. Since he committed these crimes while a missing-nin, he could not be charged as a shinobi for them. So we'd have to fill out mountains of paperwork to fix that issue, which neither the Hokage nor the Gorosei want to do. But we can't let a wanted criminal run free. So we've come up with a third option."

"That being?" Naruto asked, nervous as to where this was going.

"As I'm sure you've heard, Donquixote Doflamingo's title of Shichibukai was revoked a week ago for his acts of tyranny and genocide on Dressrosa, and Trafalgar D. Water Law's resignation shortly after."

"Well it was on a Den Den Mushi projector, so I don't see how anyone wouldn't."

"This has left two empty seats in the Oka Shichibukai. Seats that need to be filled as soon as possible. Due to your well known status as a warrior, you have been chosen to take up one of these seats. We expect your acceptance of the title as soon as possible."

"Say what now?"

"What."

"What?!"

"WHAT?!"

_**'What?!'**_

_'So this is basically code for: They're worried about publicity after letting Doflamingo-teme turn Dressrosa into a shithole, and don't want to make themselves look worse by arresting the guy who was part of the duo that beat a Suna demon. Joy bunnies.'_

"Don't talk to me like I'm just automatically going to accept being your personal flying monkey. Cause I only will one three conditions! One: I only have to follow the orders of government officials I actually respect like Smoker or Jonothan. Two: You will never ever refer to me as Sir Naruto. That's way to fancy for me. And Three *snickersnicker* you have to pay for all the damages caused during this fight."

"What, that's completely outrageous. I refuse to be bullied by a criminal." Momonga turned down all three of the offers.

"Alright then, you'll just have to arrest me then." Naruto said as he held out his arms to signal turning himself in. Momonga grinded his teeth together from the frustration, as he had been beaten by the swordsman in bargaining.

"Well, what are you just standing there for? Arrest that loser already!" Sakura told the marines who while annoyed with the girl barking orders at them moved forward to apprehend him, only to be halted by the Vice Admiral.

"Don't move a muscle men. We were given specific orders not arrest him by the highest link in the chain. I accept your conditions in the name of the Gorosei and the World Government, and grant you the title of Oka Shichibukai, Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto."

"No! That trash is not deserving of such a title. I demand that you give his title of Shichibukai and his chunin tank to me!" Sasuke pushed around the already massively irritated with the day he had been having.

Sakura didn't make it any better "Yeah, Naruto's just a Dobe. My Sasuke-kun should get all those things instead of him."

"You forget your place gaki! While you may be an Uchiha you're still a gennin; while I am a Vice Admiral in the Marines. I am no more obliged to do what you say than a dog is to shit on the carpet." Momonga finally confronted him on his behavior.

"Bah, I am still superior to you, no matter how hardly you try to deny it. You _will_ give me his title, you _will_ arrest him for his ignorance, and you _will not_ argue, because you have no place to argue with someone of my stature."

This was the straw that broke the camel's back as the Vice Admiral turned his fist into Busoshoku Haki and ran it into his stomach, knocking him unconscious "Don't flatter yourself!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Well that's over with. Now let's get back over to the Hyuuga compound before Noburu signs that betrothal pact!" Naruto signaled his captain before they continued down the path

…

…

…

For about five seconds.

"You hurt my Sasuke-kun, Naruto-Baka! I'm not going let you live another second." Sakura blocked their path with a pistol in her hands. She fired at the swordsman, though he quickly deflected it with the Shodai Kitetsu.

Pissed off at their progress being halted once again, Naruto prepared to charge and cut down his once flame, now annoyance. But to his shock, Anko stopped him before he could "You do realize that if you we don't make it to the Hyuuga compound in time to kill Noburu, he'll force Hinata to marry Sasuke. Which means that _you_ can't have him!"

The second the realization hit her, Sakura set the gun down, and moved out of their way. Now that they had no more distractions, Anko and Naruto ran down the path to the Hyuuga compound at a breakneck speed.

* * *

They made it there in no time at all after Sasuke and Sakura were taken care of, meeting up with Gaara, Hiashi, and Neji, who were currently fighting a plethora of Hyuuga main branch warriors.

Unfortunately, the battle was moving at a much slower pace than to be expected thanks to Neji's injuries from his battle earlier that day. And unlike Gaara he had no Jinchuriki youkai to speed up the healing process.

Despite this handicap they managed to make a decent time of an hour to make it to a large door to the main court of the Hyuuga clan, which had a large banging noise coming from the other side. As if someone was trying to escape.

"I'm going to say that this is the door that Noburu-teme is keeping Hinata-chan. Probably trying to get her fill out the document to complete the betrothal." Naruto said as he prepared to slice through the door.

"Not so fast! That lock is kairoseki, so if you try cut it you're sword will shatter. And for all we know this could be a trap!" Hiashi stepped in front of him.

However the latter section of the claim was faulty, as Neji pointed out with his Byakugan activated "Hiashi-sama, I hate to correct you, but the person on the other side is trying way to hard to break down the door for it to be an act."

"Oh…Well we're going to have find out what the code is to the lock is before we do anything else."

It was at this point Anko stepped up to the plate and began inspecting the lock's properties _'Let's see here, who made this damned thing…Smiley Industries? I'm guessing Doflamingo sold him this thing, and judging by his ego, it probably has something to do with him. There are five 10 letter characters that can be entered…J-O-K-E-R. Done."_

The very second Anko pressed the button to the lock, the door began to undo itself giving the group of ninja entry into the chamber.

"Time's up bas-" Naruto didn't have time to finish his claim as he rammed straight into the person who was banging on the door, sending him flying to the ground, while Naruto grabbed onto his forehead from the pain of the impact.

He grunted and muttered curses under his breath before realizing who he had run into "Wait a minute, Kiba?!"

"Damn…you…bastard…" Kiba groaned on the floor of the palace.

In response to the confusion developed from what had just occurred Hiashi looked around his office. Besides Kiba being unconscious on the floor, Chouji, Tokuhei, and Ino were playing Shiritori in the corner (Ino was kicking his ass), Noburu was dead against a wall with a hand shaped dent in the location of his heart, while Hinata was sitting on his throne, looking deep in thought.

"Hey you guys. It's a good thing you showed up. I was getting hungry and Kiba wasn't getting any closer to breaking that thing down, and Hinata wasn't getting any closer to figuring out that code."

Anko looked at the lock and saw that the decisive evidence to the lock's code had not been printed on that side of the door "Well I guess that makes sense."

"But that only explains why escape up to this point. The rest of this mystery remains to be just that." Neji stated with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

It was at this point where Tokuhei stood up with a cat-like smile on his face "I can explain what happened."

* * *

_'Flashback no Jutsu'_

_Everything was going accordingly for Noburu's plan. The spies had been captured by Hiashi's lieutenant and were locked up in the place court/throne room, Sasuke was guarding the main path, and he had Hinata in his possession._

_But then there was getting her to sign the document that was the problem "How many times do I have to say it, I refuse to marry Sasuke!"_

_"You don't have a choice in the matter Hinata-hime. Merging our clans would be a great opportunity for us, not to mention he's a very handsome and charming young man." Noburu stated calmly, despite fuming on the inside._

_At the scene in front of them, the other captives watched in surprise "I would say that I'm shocked that Hinata's hold out this long, but that would be a lie. But I am surprised that she's raising her voice to this asshole."_

_"She's got the hots for Naruto,the most rebellious out of anyone in the village! It shouldn't be that surprising." Kiba said sarcastically, taking a break from his attempt to gnaw his chains off._

_"I'm pretty sure it would only be beneficial towards you and your deal with Danzō. And to make this perfectly clear I refuse to marry that bastard, since I don't even like him, much less love him, and I love another man."_

_She felt her heart drop when Noburu began to snicker condescendingly "Oh you poor naïve little gaki, you don't honestly believe that you can ever be with that monster. A lady of your class should be with someone of equal stature, instead of a filthy demon criminal like Cinderface. Which is why I hired your intended to guard the path and kill him."_

_Upon hearing this last bit of news, Hinata dropped to the floor with apparent despair "Alright…you win…I'll do it…"_

_"What?! Hinata you can't be serious!" Ino screamed from her captive state before receiving a halting glare from Kiba._

_"Now that's more like it. Now sign you name on the document so your betrothal to Sasuke-sama." Noburu said contently as Hinata just stood there with innocent puppy dog eyes and lifted up her handcuffs._

_"Could you please take these off first? I don't think I could write with my hands locked up like this."_

_While Noburu was suspicious at first, he figured a woman wouldn't be smart enough to come up with such an escape plan. This backfired on him a few moments later._

**"Eight Trigram: Vacuum Palm"**

_Hinata slammed her fist into the Hyuuga elder's chest and into the wall, killing him instantly "Don't call Naruto-kun a demon, bitch."_

_After ending her captor she reached for the remaining keys and undid the chains on her friend "Damn Hinata, I didn't know you had that in you!"_

_"Wwwwell I guess a part of me just snapped there Ino-chan." Hinata stuttered, reverting back to her normal shy nature,_

_"Don't celebrate just yet you guys. There's still that sniper-teme in the corner." Kiba pointed to Tokuhei who was peacefully sipping sake on the other side oft the room "Oh you mean me? Don't worry I was just following his orders cause of the Caged Bird Seal. I figured something like that would happen, or Cinderface-sama and Umino-sama would come and kick his ass."_

_"Oh. Well now we just got to open that door and-" Kiba's attempt to open the door failed as the wheel stopped before it could unlock it "Are you serious! Come on you stupid door, open up!"_

_The others watched as Kiba and Akumaru began attempting to break the door down with their own hand/paws. Hinata sat down onto her father's throne and began thinking aloud "Let's see, the lock was just installed and the only one's who would know the code would be Noburu and its proprietor. Now who is its proprietor?"_

_"Yeah we may be here awhile." Ino droned, annoyed at the situation._

* * *

"And that's how it all happened. The end, no refunds." Tokuhei concluded with the same feline grin on his face.

Ino stroked her chin as if remember something "You know, that just reminded me of something. A certain promise that Hinata made us while we were waiting!""Now that you mention, I remember it too!" Kiba joined in while looking at Hinata with a mischievous grin.

"Um, are you sure that I made some sort of promise, I think you'll have to refresh my memory!" Hinata looked the other way, blushing and lying through her teeth.

"Give it up Hinata-San, there's no way you're going to weasel out of this. Do you really want to look back in this with regret?" Chouji asked her in a tone normally used by his lazy friend.

Realizing that the Akimichi had a serious point, Hinata nodded and stood up from the chair. She walked down the steps, approaching Naruto before running him up to the wall, and laying a passionate kiss onto him. After recovering from the shock of the situation, he returned it.

"Heheh, about damn time!" Anko said as she watched the pair.

They broke apart after about 20 seconds and embraced, before a playful voice came from one of the katana "Get a room you two!"

"Shut the hell up Kuruma!" Naruto yelled at his sword irritabily as it went to its human form.

"Hey just trying to get your head out of the clouds. Since your actions today probably pissed off a lot of people, I expect a steep rise in rent. So your gonna need to start working."

"The sword is right gaki. Since Hinata killed Noburu instead of you, this mission technically doesn't count." Anko explained to the shock of everyone.

"Well, I still owe you a great debt! Please allow me to give you some retribution for your deeds." Hiashi pleaded to the swordsman, who merely stood up and said "That wouldn't work. I didn't complete the mission, so I don't get the reward. It's as simple as that. Now Anko-senpai, what jobs do you have for me?"

"Let's see…there's some robber and murderer named Kinbo running around Baterilla that I think would be right up your alley."

Hinata turned to Naruto and said "Looks like your going to have quite a bit of work do for a while."

"Don't remind me." Naruto said before pulling her into another kiss…almost.

"Hey you can make out with your girlfriend later Gaki, we've got work to do!" Kuruma yelled to the swordsman. Naruto was tempted to yell 'she's not my girlfriend' in response, before realizing that statement wouldn't be true in the slightest. So he just kissed her on the cheek before following the biju.

"It's funny. Two gruff and wandering swordsman meet and become brothers. Then years later they've both fallen in love with blue haired woman." Kuruma joked to his parter in crime.

"You mean Tashigi? Well Zoro-niisan's never going to act on his feelings for her."

"Says the guy who only did after his girl acted first!" Kuruma teased him before run as fast as he could in down the path. An enraged Naruto chased after him after unsheathing his two remaining swords, as Kuruma had pulled out a straw of his patience with the demon.

The last straw.

* * *

**Omake:**

**Jiraiya: Ah the wedding. I've waited so long for this. Oh look at her in that dress!**

***door slamming from the TV***

**Jiraiya: Count Gondor? What's he doing here?!**

**Count Gondor: I've come to reclaim my bride!**

**Jiraiya: You had your chance at the cotillion, you bastard!**

**Groom: ****You had your chance at the cotillion, you bastard**

**Jiraiya: That's what I'm saying! AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH!**

**Kurama and Naruto were walking outside, the having a large bruise on his head from when the pissed off swordsman finally managed to catch up with him. They were hitting there apartment to get supplies for the incoming job, but stopped dead in their tracks when a Den Den Mushi television fell from the window above.**

***Jiraiya sticks his head from the window***

**Jiraiya:…Couldn't find the remote.…**

* * *

**Ending Music: Live to Win by Paul McCartney**

**In Memoriam:**

**Fuwafuwa**

**Coovil**

**Bundey Jack**

**Shigure**

**Ikō**

**Sankho**

**Gilles Dahmer**

**Yoroi Akadō**

**Zaku Abumi**

**Misumi Tsuguri**

**Ibiki Morino**

**Yagura**

**Dosun Kinatu**

**Sai Tesaki**

**Torune Aburame**

**Hizashi Hyuuga**

**Rasa Sabaku**

**Fū Yamanaka **

**Noburu Hyuuga**

_**Ninja of Santoryu **_

_**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki **_

**_Coming Fall 2015_**

**_Thank you for a successful arc. See you all later_**

**_-Skillet28561_**

**_. . ._**


	20. Arc 2 Preview: Real Chapter Coming Soon!

**(A/N): Hey guys, it's been quite some time hasn't it? Well don't worry the new arc is still going strong and I hope to have it finished sometime before Winter officially starts. To be fair where I live, we still have pretty decent weather compared to the -12° weather places up north get this time of year. Not to mention I'm back in school and it's been a real pain in the ass. So to tide you guys over during the bit of hiatus we have left, I'm putting out a small preview of Arc 2. And something else, while I've been breaking with this story, I've ramped up production on the rewrite of Cedric's story Voodoo's Disciple, so both will be running concurrently. If your into Total Drama or just horror in general, give that story some love, since it has 176 less reviews than this one. Be sure to click the right one though cause the original really sucked. And one more thing, try not to review the preview, cause if you do, when the real thing comes out, it'll be impossible to review it thanks to this site's rules. Now enough of my rambling let's get to the fun part :D**

**Ninja of Santoryu Arc 2 Preview:**

* * *

At the Konohagakure Ninja Academy, a preteen sat at his desk, fiddling around with his paper in a focused manner, with a flock of fan girls surrounding him. He had yellow eyes and black hair with the right side having three white stripes. He wore a black suit with rectangles covering it, and a leaf broach.

This boy was Zhên Shikogami, a talented young shinobi well on his way to becoming rookie of the year. Except for one problem. He was completely obsessed with symmetry "It has to be at a perfect 90° angle or else it won't be accepted by Kakashi-sensei!"

"Don't worry Zhên-kun, I know you'll get it right eventually. Your the greatest ninja alive!" One of the fan girls said. This was Mêi Ginosuzu and she really didn't care as much for being a ninja as she did being near her crush. Yet somehow she remained Top Kunoichi of the class "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth!"

"No I will, Zhên-kun! Don't listen to this okama!"

"No I will!"

"No I will!"

"Be quiet! Can't you see I am working on making this perfectly symmetrical! I refuse to fail thanks to being hounded by you people!" Zhên yelled at them, though it not deter their attempts to gain his attention.

All while Kakashi sat his desk looking incredibly flabbergasted at the situation. After regaining his jounin rank, Kakashi was made the lieutenant of Division 1. However since Iruka was still learning to walk with his new prosthetic leg, it made him incapable of teaching until then. As a result Kakashi was made a substitute.

_'It doesn't have to perfect you know. I just want it to be turned in.'_ Kakashi though got to himself as he looked over the class. A majority of the males resented Zhên for being a girl magnet, as well as his fussy nature. Only one girl in the class didn't fall all over him.

Renjā Kaminari, a young girl red hair with blue and purple streaks, and the current Dead Last of the class "Are you serious Zhên-teme? Who cares about that stuff. Who cares if it's perfect as long as it gets done?"

"You know nothing of symmetry! Everything has to be aesthetically pleasing!" Zhên approached the girl angrily only for to retort.

"What right do you have to talk about symmetry anyways? Three stripes on the left side of your hair and none on the right. That's not symmetrical at all!"

When he realized this Zhên fell to his knees and began banging on the ground in shame "How could I have never noticed it! I'm filthy dirty asymmetrical scum! I want to die! I'm garbage! Asymmetrical garbage!"

"Renjā-The Baka, what did you due to Zhên-kun?!" Mêi screamed at her, while a bunch of fan girls that surrounded her. But unlike a majority of her predecessors Renjā had no problem fighting back, and the girls of the class room engaged in a brawl.

While this was going on Kakashi stood up from his desk and approached the half-conscious Zhên kneeling down to him "You really should get over this silly symmetry obsession. It's doing you much more harm than good."

"Kakashi-sensei, let me ask something. Recently I've heard rumors. You were the sensei of the Cinderface, Roronoa Naruto. Is this true?"

The one eyed jounin looked taken back at this question but quickly responded bashfully "Well I didn't really teach him much. Most of the credit should go to Roronoa for that."

"Who cares. That punk is just a filthy monster. My parents said so." One of those in the corner of the class claimed, which turned out to be a horrible decision as Renjā had thrown her chair at him.

When he regained orientation he found the nettled dead last standing above him, and lifting him up by the collar of his shirt "Don't you dare speak of him like that in front of me. He is my idol in the ways of the sword."

She dropped him back to the ground and went back to her seat as continued doodling on her paper. The child grumbled "What a bitch. Not surprising that dobe's idol is him."

It was then he noticed Zhên standing above him with an icy look on his face. He was about to insult him before Zhên kneeled down and put him in a hold "How…dare…you…insult…him…like…that!"

"For once we agree on something Zhên-teme. Nobody talks bad about a swordsman around me!"

"Swordsmanship has nothing to do with it Renjā-me." The black haired boy said as he walked down to the whiteboard, and pulled out a newspaper with Naruto on it and slammed it against the board "Look at the lines on his face. They are perfectly symmetrical!"

"It appears my old pupil has gained a small following amongst the younger generation. I guess becoming the first shinobi to become a Shichibukai in history will do that." Kakashi bemused before looking out the window to see the sun "He should be getting back soon. Wonder how he's doing."

* * *

It had been two months since the conclusion of the chunin exams, and Naruto was named a Shichibukai. He had racked up several jobs catching criminals ranging robbers to serial killers with Kuruma. And now that his bounty had been frozen, he didn't have to worry about being chased by the law himself. But there was one downside to his newfound career in Division 3…

The government meetings.

His apartment had lain dormant in the weeks, with almost everything exactly as it had been left, aside from the occasional vandal that Jiraiya expelled effective immediately. The peaceful silence was finally broken on a rainy October afternoon, when door went flying off the hinges, to reveal an exhausted and irritated Naruto.

"How many times is that bitch going to change the locks on my door. Half the money I spend from my jobs I end up spending is just fixing this door." Naruto said to himself before crashing onto his bed and pulling out a collection of _Calvin and Hobbes_.

_**"So how long are you going to sit on your ass for gaki?"**_One of the swords hitched at his side asked before turning into a white haired man in a black pinstripe suit.

"If you had to deal with those idiots in Marejois for more than five seconds you'd be pretty exhausted too." Naruto growled to his biju before turning the page of his comic "Honestly, world nobles. Can't live with 'em, can't hunt 'em for sport."

**_"Well then why did you even become involved with those dumbasses anyways?"_**

"For one thing, cause they couldn't say no to my demands. And second, simply to piss off Sasuke-teme." Naruto answered his biju with a mischievous grin on his whiskered face

Then another, lazier voice came from the door "You're back already Naruto-san, how troublesome. And what the hell happened to your door anyways?"

"The landlady changed my locks again. How do you think I trained myself to do that anyways?" Naruto stood up as he explained the situation to his unmotivated friend,

"I guess that makes sense. I just came by to tell you that Kiba was looking for us earlier and-" Shikamaru stopped speaking when he noticed the comic collection laying on Naruto's bed "Are you reading Calvin and Hobbes?"

"Yeah so what. It's got a good story, funny jokes, and interesting characters. Kind of like what you say about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And he doesn't give you a hard time for watching that." Kurama taunted with a devious grin on his pale face.

The embarrassed and flustered Shikamaru immediately defended "Hey I only watch that show because Temari-chan likes it so much! And she was the one who said that, not me!"

"…Spike is useless…" Naruto said completely deadpan, not looking up from his collection, just waiting for a reaction out of Shikamaru. This comment visibly irritated his fellow chunin.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. Not like the writers ever give him consistently good episodes." Shikamaru huffed as he crossed his arms. This faded away into humiliation when he realized what he had just said, causing the blonde swordsman and the white haired biju in the corner to start laughing their asses off.

* * *

**(A/N): Apologies to any bronies who read this story. Naruto's thoughts below symbolize my own**

* * *

"What a drag!" Shikamaru grunted in anger as his secret was blown "Look please don't tell Ino or Asuma-sensei, they'd never let me live it down."

"Don't worry. Not like it makes any different a person for liking a show. You're still the same no good pointy headed slacker we all know and love." Naruto told him as he stood up from his bed, setting down the book and asking "So what did Kiba want from me anyways?"

"Oh, something about an important mission we needed to go on with him. Apparently Sandaime-sama gave it to him. I don't buy it for a second, but it's at least worth looking into. Their apparently on a mission to capture some slave trading pirates hanging out near Shukuba Town" Shikamaru explained to Naruto he responded by strapping his katana back up against his waist and hanging his hitai-te around his neck, while Kurama morphed back into a sword.

"Well what are we waiting for? 'Bout time something exciting happen." The excited Naruto said before running out his window and down the streets of Konoha, leaving a confused Shikamaru alone in his apartment.

"He just took off into the complete opposite direction…Are we sure he and Zoro aren't blood related?"

* * *

**"Gentle Fist"**

True to Shikamaru's word Team 8 was currently doing battle with a group of pirates that have attacking travelers, killing the men and selling the women. Since the South Blue was one of three seas where slave trade was a crime punishable by death, they had to be apprehended. A clear majority of the bandits were making their attacks on Hinata.

"This girl's a Grade-A hottie."

"You're telling me. The nobles would love to have a sexy little slave like her!"

"I don't know, she should be one of the ones we keep all to ourselves!"

"What do you say baby, wanna see what a real man's like?"

Everytime one of them made a comment like that Hinata only got angrier and angrier, striking down anyone who got remotely close to her that wasn't wearing a Konoha hitai-te. After a little to much of their lewd advances, Hinata's rage exploded into one final attack.

**"Tēzā Kaiten"**

In mere seconds the men surrounding her were blown back and knocked unconscious, or just flat out disintegrated by the giant sphere of rotating static electricity. When it finally slowed to a stop Hinata said apologetically "Sorry but I have a boyfriend, and I don't think he'd like you doing that to me."

"Why that bitch! I'll show her to obey a man!"

Hinata easily noticed the man charging at her with a worn down cutlass and prepared to strike "I already have a perverted asshole stalking me in Konoha. I don't need you doing it to!"

**"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!"**

The strike easily knocked the kidnapper several yards back leaving him in a crater of broken trees and dust "Man this chick's bad news. We need some backup here. Call Big Mom up!"

"I couldn't help but here your conversation. You seem to forget that I'm here too, and I happen to consider myself quite the exceptional shinobi. And unlike my teammates I have a Devil Fruit power on my side." A creepy voice said from the other side of the clearing. Shino stood there with a blank expression on his face, even as the traders charged him. Suddenly any of them within five feet of him collapsed and began writhing in agony.

"You may not be aware of this but I've placed a diameter of bullet ants around me. So it probably wouldn't be the smartest idea to come charging in at me without thinking." Shino explained to his would be attackers, simply watching as Kurenai either trapped those foolish enough to try to capture her and put her into trade inside one of her infamous genjutsu or simply slaughtering them while either in her panther or hybrid form.

Kiba and Akamaru were having a similarly easy time fighting their opponents, regularly switching between dog and human forms. After a while of simply pounding into their opponents Akamaru got into a tense position barking constantly. Kiba gathered chakra into his palm before slamming it into his dog's back, causing a sonic boom to emit from the dogs mouth.

**"Wind Release: Sonic Bark Cannon!"**

The pirates were blown back the blast easily and knocked unconscious either by the force of the blow, or getting launched into trees or stones. By this point in the assault, only one remained.

"Yo, yyyou narcs won't get away with this! Big Mom will have your heads for interfering like thi-"

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu"**

**"Ittoryu: Lion's Song"**

In what seemed like a mere instant, the thug was trapped by the shadow at his ankles and cut down by a certain red hooded swordsman. After the attack was made Naruto angrily turned and yelled at the lazy man in the trees "Shikamaru you jackass! You gave me the wrong directions!"

"Baka, I didn't even give you directions. You just ran off without thinking again. Not my fault your orientation sucks." Shikamaru retorted as he jumped down from the branch he stood on.

"…Damn it not again what the hell's wrong with me? Of all the habits I had to pick up from Zoro-niisan!" Naruto began hitting himself on the head upon realizing his mistake before stopping when he realized Hinata was right in front of him. When he saw her ran towards her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek "Hinata-chan, how've you been doing?"

Hinata instantly turned back to her normal meek self and stuttered to her boyfriend "I don't really want to talk about it."

**_"Hey Kit, there seems to be an odd mix of fear and anger in her voice. This seems like a matter that's worth looking into later."_**

_'Don't worry Kurama, I had already noticed.' _Naruto told the fox demon in his head before a familiar K-9 ninja approached him with a big grin on his face.

"Hey there Naruto, it's been awhile! So how'd that big meeting up in Marejois go anyways?" Kiba asked the swordsman only to be met with a pained grimace.

"I don't really want to talk about it. _Laaaaaaammmme." _Naruto answered in a tone much similar to Hinata's. Though this confused and slightly frightened Kiba he continued with his conversation.

"I'm not really sure if I want to know what happened actually. Now back to the great news! I think I've worn Ol' Hokage-Sama down enough. He's going to make me a chunin."

"Oh really? So what are the details anyways?" Naruto asked with disbelief.

"All I got to do is complete some mission involving some old fart doctor and I get a promotion. But there's one problem. He kinda won't let me go unless I bring two chunin with me." Kiba explained sheepishly. While Naruto was confused as to his nervousness at first, he quickly put two and two together.

"So your telling me, you signed me and Shikamaru up for a mission without our permission?" Naruto asked with the rage growing in his voice while slowly clicked the Shodai Kitetsu from its sheath.

"…No…" Kiba said nervously seeming self aware of how irritated both of the chunin in front of him seemed to be "I also signed up Izumo and Kotetsu!"

As one could imagine Naruto was very enraged at this, as he immediately gave chase while unsheathing both the Yamakawa-o and the Shodai Kitetsu from its sheath. Kiba predicted this and start running back in the direction of Konoha long before Naruto started sprinting after him.

"GET BACK HERE YOU DAMN MUTT! I'LL TEACH YOU TO NOT CONSULT PEOPLE FOR SIGNING THEM UP TO A FRICKIN' DELIVERY BOY MISSION, RIGHT AFTER THEY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH CURLY HEADED FREAKS FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!"

"That's weird, you think Naruto-kun would be a bit more excited at going on a mission to meet the captain of Division 12." Hinata stated with confusion.

"Yeah, but you gotta remember Kiba never actually told him that it was Shou Tucker. Even so it's a pretty dick move singing someone up for a C-Grade mission after 7 days of nonstop meetings. And believe me when I say my team just got off work too, so I was looking forward to a nice long weekend alone. This is such a drag."

Hinata giggled for a moment at the Nara's words before suggesting "That's funny. Ino-chan told me you were going to the sand to visit Temari-chan for the weekend. I bet Gaara-kun's not happy about that!"

Shikamaru immediately froze up from embarrassment before grumbling to himself "Damnit, why are women so troublesome?"


	21. Division 12 Captain: Shou Tucker

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Naruto or One Piece or Soul Eater or Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did the new shichibukai would look a lot cooler.**

**Ikō: It feels great to back on my author's note chair after so long.**

**Cedric: Speak for yourself, I've gotta go work on my own story for awhile, so I'm just here for a quick cameo.**

**Ikō:…Since when are you British?**

**Cedric: Depends since when is there an alien robot crane hanging from the ceiling?**

**Wheatley: Hello there. D-did anybody else notice me? I-I've been here since the chapter started. I can see you all through your computer monitors. You're all so teeney. _Teeney Tiny! _Hey what's that guy watching on the other page? Is he playing Angry Birds?**

**Ikō: Skillet why is there a robot in our A/N room?**

**Skillet: That's Wheatley from Portal 2. One of the new guys I hired for this season.**

**Cedric: Great another moron.**

***guns cock around Cedric***

**Wheatley: I AM NOT A MORON!**

**Cedric: Well someone's got anger issues. That won't even do anything to me. I'm immortal, remember?**

**Greed: Immortal? Sounds like someone's been stealing my shtick!**

**Cedric: Now where would you get that idea?**

**Greed: We're both immortal, have messy brown hair, sharp teeth, a Seven Deadly Sins motif, and a fur collar jacket.**

**Cedric: I actually have a Through the Looking Glass motif. The seven sins comes in later to my story.**

**Maya: Hey Skillet, am I late for the authors note?**

**Skillet: Nope. Just in time actually.**

**Greed: Hey what's the girl from Ace Attorney doing here?**

**Skillet: I wanted a character in these things besides me that isn't a homicidal maniac!**

**L: I'm not a homicidal maniac. It's my job to catch them actually.**

**Greed: Yes which is exactly there are like a thousand active serial killers today.**

**L: I've been rather busy with Light.**

**Ikō: Wait you knew he was Kira?!**

**L:Well 52% sure anyways. But I'd need proof. Definitive proof is everything in justice.**

**Maya: Hey this guy sounds like Edgeworth!**

**Cedric: Well now that the role call is over, let's start the arc off with a bang.**

**Skillet: But before we do, here's a fun game. Count all the references to other anime in this chapter!**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 19: Division 12 Captain: Shou Tucker**

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS LARGELY BASED OFF OF ONE OF THE MOST DEPRESSING EPISODES IN ANIME HISTORY. IF YOU HAVE SEEN FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST OR ITS SUCCESSOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST:BROTHERHOOD YOU MAY KNOW WHAT'S COMING. BUT FOR THISE WHO HAVEN'T, BE WARNED. SERIOUSLY THIS IS SCREWED UP SHIT.**

* * *

At the Konohagakure Ninja Academy, a preteen sat at his desk, fiddling around with his paper in a focused manner, with a flock of fan girls surrounding him. He had yellow eyes and black hair with the right side having three white stripes. He wore a black suit with rectangles covering it, and a leaf broach.

This boy was Zhên Shikogami, a talented young shinobi well on his way to becoming rookie of the year. Except for one problem. He was completely obsessed with symmetry "It has to be at a perfect 90° angle or else it won't be accepted by Kakashi-sensei!"

"Don't worry Zhên-kun, I know you'll get it right eventually. Your the greatest ninja alive!" One of the fan girls said. This was Mêi Ginosuzu and she really didn't care as much for being a ninja as she did being near her crush. Yet somehow she remained Top Kunoichi of the class "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth!"

"No I will, Zhên-kun! Don't listen to this okama!"

"No I will!"

"No I will!"

"Be quiet! Can't you see I am working on making this perfectly symmetrical! I refuse to fail thanks to being hounded by you people!" Zhên yelled at them, though it not deter their attempts to gain his attention.

All while Kakashi sat his desk looking incredibly flabbergasted at the situation. After regaining his jounin rank, Kakashi was made the lieutenant of Division 1. However since Iruka was still learning to walk with his new prosthetic leg, it made him incapable of teaching until then. As a result Kakashi was made a substitute.

_'It doesn't have to perfect you know. I just want it to be turned in.'_ Kakashi though got to himself as he looked over the class. A majority of the males resented Zhên for being a girl magnet, as well as his fussy nature. Only one girl in the class didn't fall all over him.

Renjā Kaminari, a young girl red hair with blue and purple streaks, and the current Dead Last of the class "Are you serious Zhên-teme? Who cares about that stuff. Who cares if it's perfect as long as it gets done?"

"You know nothing of symmetry! Everything has to be aesthetically pleasing!" Zhên approached the girl angrily only for to retort.

"What right do you have to talk about symmetry anyways? Three stripes on the left side of your hair and none on the right. That's not symmetrical at all!"

When he realized this Zhên fell to his knees and began banging on the ground in shame "How could I have never noticed it! I'm filthy dirty asymmetrical scum! I want to die! I'm garbage! Asymmetrical garbage!"

"Renjā-Baka, what did you due to Zhên-kun?!" Mêi screamed at her, while a bunch of fan girls that surrounded her. But unlike a majority of her predecessors Renjā had no problem fighting back, and the girls of the class room engaged in a brawl.

While this was going on Kakashi stood up from his desk and approached the half-conscious Zhên kneeling down to him "You really should get over this silly symmetry obsession. It's doing you much more harm than good."

"Kakashi-sensei, let me ask something. Recently I've heard rumors. You were the sensei of the Cinderface, Roronoa Naruto. Is this true?"

The one eyed jounin looked taken back at this question but quickly responded bashfully "Well I didn't really teach him much. Most of the credit should go to Roronoa for that."

"Who cares. That punk is just a filthy monster. My parents said so." One of those in the corner of the class claimed, which turned out to be a horrible decision as Renjā had thrown her chair at him.

When he regained orientation he found the nettled dead last standing above him, and lifting him up by the collar of his shirt "Don't you dare speak of him like that in front of me. He is my idol in the ways of the sword."

She dropped him back to the ground and went back to her seat as continued doodling on her paper. The child grumbled "What a bitch. Not surprising that dobe's idol is him."

It was then he noticed Zhên standing above him with an icy look on his face. He was about to insult him before Zhên kneeled down and put him in a hold "How…dare…you…insult…him…like…that!"

"For once we agree on something Zhên-teme. Nobody talks bad about a swordsman around me!"

"Swordsmanship has nothing to do with it Renjā-me." The black haired boy said as he walked down to the whiteboard, and pulled out a newspaper with Naruto on it and slammed it against the board "Look at the lines on his face. They are perfectly symmetrical!"

"It appears my old pupil has gained a small following amongst the younger generation. I guess becoming the first shinobi to become a Shichibukai in history will do that." Kakashi bemused before looking out the window to see the sun "He should be getting back soon. Wonder how he's doing."

* * *

It had been two months since the conclusion of the chunin exams, and Naruto was named a Shichibukai. He had racked up several jobs catching criminals ranging robbers to serial killers with Kuruma. And now that his bounty had been frozen, he didn't have to worry about being chased by the law himself. But there was one downside to his newfound career in Division 3…

The government meetings.

His apartment had lain dormant in the weeks, with almost everything exactly as it had been left, aside from the occasional vandal that Jiraiya expelled effective immediately. The peaceful silence was finally broken on a rainy October afternoon, when door went flying off the hinges, to reveal an exhausted and irritated Naruto.

"How many times is that bitch going to change the locks on my door. Half the money I spend from my jobs I end up spending is just fixing this door." Naruto said to himself before crashing onto his bed and pulling out a collection of _Calvin and Hobbes_.

_**"So how long are you going to sit on your ass for gaki?"** _One of the swords hitched at his side asked before turning into a white haired man in a black pinstripe suit.

"If you had to deal with those idiots in Marejois for more than five seconds you'd be pretty exhausted too." Naruto growled to his biju before turning the page of his comic "Honestly, world nobles. Can't live with 'em, can't hunt 'em for sport."

**_"Well then why did you even become involved with those dumbasses anyways?"_**

"For one thing, cause they couldn't say no to my demands. And second, simply to piss off Sasuke-teme." Naruto answered his biju with a mischievous grin on his whiskered face

Then another, lazier voice came from the door "You're back already Naruto-san, how troublesome. And what the hell happened to your door anyways?"

"The landlady changed my locks again. How do you think I trained myself to do that anyways?" Naruto read as he explained the situation to his unmotivated friend,

"I guess that makes sense. I just came by to tell you that Kiba was looking for us earlier and-" Shikamaru stopped speaking when he noticed the comic collection laying on Naruto's bed "Are you reading Calvin and Hobbes?"

"Yeah so what. It's got a good story, funny jokes, and interesting characters. Kind of like what you say about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And he doesn't give you a hard time for watching that." Kurama taunted with a devious grin on his pale face.

The embarrassed and flustered Shikamaru immediately defended "Hey I only watch that show because Temari-chan likes it so much! And she was the one who said that, not me!"

"…Spike is useless…" Naruto said completely deadpan, not looking up from his collection, just waiting for a reaction out of Shikamaru. This comment visibly irritated his fellow chunin.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. Not like the writers ever give him consistently good episodes." Shikamaru huffed as he crossed his arms. This faded away into humiliation when he realized what he had just said, causing the blonde swordsman and the white haired biju in the corner to start laughing their asses off.

"What a drag!" Shikamaru grunted in anger as his secret was blown "Look please don't tell Ino or Asuma-sensei, they'd never let me live it down."

"Don't worry. Not like it makes any different a person for liking a show. You're still the same no good pointy headed slacker we all know and love." Naruto told him as he stood up from his bed, setting down the book and asking "So what did Kiba want from me anyways?"

"Oh, something about an important mission we needed to go on with him. Apparently Sandaime-sama gave it to him. I don't buy it for a second, but it's at least worth looking into. Their apparently on a mission to capture some slave trading pirates hanging out near Shukuba Town" Shikamaru explained to Naruto he responded by strapping his katana back up against his waist and hanging his hitai-te around his neck, while Kurama morphed back into a sword.

"Well what are we waiting for? 'Bout time something exciting happen." The excited Naruto said before running out his window and down the streets of Konoha, leaving a confused Shikamaru alone in his apartment.

"He just took off into the complete opposite direction…Are we sure he and Zoro aren't blood related?"

* * *

**"Gentle Fist"**

True to Shikamaru's word Team 8 was currently doing battle with a group of pirates that have attacking travelers, killing the men and selling the women. Since the South Blue was one of three seas where slave trade was a crime punishable by death, they had to be apprehended. A clear majority of the bandits were making their attacks on Hinata.

"This girl's a Grade-A hottie."

"You're telling me. The nobles would love to have a sexy little slave like her!"

"I don't know, she should be one of the ones we keep all to ourselves!"

"What do you say baby, wanna see what a real man's like?"

Everytime one of them made a comment like that Hinata only got angrier and angrier, striking down anyone who got remotely close to her that wasn't wearing a Konoha hitai-te. After a little to much of their lewd advances, Hinata's rage exploded into one final attack.

**"Tēzā Kaiten"**

In mere seconds the men surrounding her were blown back and knocked unconscious, or just flat out disintegrated by the giant sphere of rotating static electricity. When it finally slowed to a stop Hinata said apologetically "Sorry but I have a boyfriend, and I don't think he'd like you doing that to me."

"Why that bitch! I'll show her to obey a man!"

Hinata easily noticed the man charging at her with a worn down cutlass and prepared to strike "I already have a perverted asshole stalking me in Konoha. I don't need you doing it to!"

**"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!"**

The strike easily knocked the kidnapper several yards back leaving him in a crater of broken trees and dust "Man this chick's bad news. We need some backup here. Call Big Mom up!"

"I couldn't help but here your conversation. You seem to forget that I'm here too, and I happen to consider myself quite the exceptional shinobi. And unlike my teammates I have a Devil Fruit power on my side." A creepy voice said from the other side of the clearing. Shino stood there with a blank expression on his face, even as the traders charged him. Suddenly any of them within five feet of him collapsed and began writhing in agony.

"You may not be aware of this but I've placed a diameter of bullet ants around me. So it probably wouldn't be the smartest idea to come charging in at me without thinking." Shino explained to his would be attackers, simply watching as Kurenai either trapped those foolish enough to try to capture her and put her into trade inside one of her infamous genjutsu or simply slaughtering them while either in her panther or hybrid form.

Kiba and Akamaru were having a similarly easy time fighting their opponents, regularly switching between dog and human forms. After a while of simply pounding into their opponents Akamaru got into a tense position barking constantly. Kiba gathered chakra into his palm before slamming it into his dog's back, causing a sonic boom to emit from the dogs mouth.

**"Wind Release: Sonic Bark Cannon!"**

The pirates were blown back the blast easily and knocked unconscious either by the force of the blow, or getting launched into trees or stones. By this point in the assault, only one remained.

"Yo, yyyou narcs won't get away with this! Big Mom will have your heads for interfering like thi-"

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu"**

**"Ittoryu: Lion's Song"**

In what seemed like a mere instant, the thug was trapped by the shadow at his ankles and cut down by a certain red hooded swordsman. After the attack was made Naruto angrily turned and yelled at the lazy man in the trees "Shikamaru you jackass! You gave me the wrong directions!"

"Baka, I didn't even give you directions. You just ran off without thinking again. Not my fault your orientation sucks." Shikamaru retorted as he jumped down from the branch he stood on.

"…Damn it not again what the hell's wrong with me? Of all the habits I had to pick up from Zoro-niisan!" Naruto began hitting himself on the head upon realizing his mistake before stopping when he realized Hinata was right in front of him. When he saw her ran towards her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek "Hinata-chan, how've you been doing?"

Hinata instantly turned back to her normal meek self and stuttered to her boyfriend "I don't really want to talk about it."

**_"Hey Kit, there seems to be an odd mix of fear and anger in her voice. This seems like a matter that's worth looking into later."_**

_'Don't worry Kurama, I had already noticed.' _Naruto told the fox demon in his head before a familiar K-9 ninja approached him with a big grin on his face.

"Hey there Naruto, it's been awhile! So how'd that big meeting up in Marejois go anyways?" Kiba asked the swordsman only to be met with a pained grimace.

"I don't really want to talk about it. _Laaaaaaammmme." _Naruto answered in a tone much similar to Hinata's. Though this confused and slightly frightened Kiba he continued with his conversation.

"I'm not really sure if I want to know what happened actually. Now back to the great news! I think I've worn Ol' Hokage-Sama down enough. He's going to make me a chunin."

"Oh really? So what are the details anyways?" Naruto asked with disbelief.

"All I got to do is complete some mission involving some old fart doctor and I get a promotion. But there's one problem. He kinda won't let me go unless I bring two chunin with me." Kiba explained sheepishly. While Naruto was confused as to his nervousness at first, he quickly put two and two together.

"So your telling me, you signed me and Shikamaru up for a mission without our permission?" Naruto asked with the rage growing in his voice while slowly clicked the Shodai Kitetsu from its sheath.

"…No…" Kiba said nervously seeming self aware of how irritated both of the chunin in front of him seemed to be "I also signed up Izumo and Kotetsu!"

As one could imagine Naruto was very enraged at this, as he immediately gave chase while unsheathing both the Yamakawa-o and the Shodai Kitetsu from its sheath. Kiba predicted this and start running back in the direction of Konoha long before Naruto started sprinting after him.

"GET BACK HERE YOU DAMN MUTT! I'LL TEACH YOU TO NOT CONSULT PEOPLE FOR SIGNING THEM UP TO A FRICKIN' DELIVERY BOY MISSION, RIGHT AFTER THEY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH CURLY HEADED FREAKS FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!"

"That's weird, you think Naruto-kun would be a bit more excited at going on a mission to meet the captain of Division 12." Hinata stated with confusion.

"Yeah, but you gotta remember Kiba never actually told him that it was Shou Tucker. Even so it's a pretty dick move signing someone up for a C-Grade mission after 7 days of nonstop meetings. And believe me when I say my team just got off work too, so I was looking forward to a nice long weekend alone. This is such a drag."

Hinata giggled for a moment at the Nara's words before suggesting "That's funny. Ino-chan told me you were going to Suna to visit Temari-chan for the weekend. I bet Gaara-kun's not happy about that!"

Shikamaru immediately froze up from embarrassment before grumbling to himself "Damnit, why are women so troublesome?"

* * *

Once Naruto calmed down enough to hear the whole story, the group headed to the Hokage's office to retrieve the rest of their team and began heading to the location where Shou Tucker made his home, which layed south of Konoha in a place called Nikkō Inn Town.

"I still don't get why it says Inn actually in the name in the town. It's so damn stupid sounding for crying out loud." Kiba complained as he walked next to the Division 9 lieutenants, before accidentally aggravating the injuries he received once Naruto finally caught up with him.

"To be fair, this place is well known for its first large and fancy inns, kind of like Shukuba Town is known in the Land of Fire for its casinos. In fact Captain Shou Tucker also runs one down there where he lives called The Castle which is known for its's rustic nature, and oddly enough it's strange disappearances." Izumo explained as he walked down the dirt path and put on hand sanitizer, while the aforementioned inn town got closer in view."

"That's true Izumo. One of its were also the place I…_I…I MET HEEEEEER!_" Kotetsu suddenly burst out crying and dropped to his knees in the middle of the road."

"How troublesome. Hey Izumo-San, what the hell's wrong with your partner?"

The germaphobic guard simply sighed and explained the situation "He's still not over this girl who dumped him four weeks ago. It's nothing to really worry about."

"NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT?! What are you talking about? What was happening with me and Tsukiko was true love. I was going to propose to her, but then that bleached blonde cradle robbing whore left me for a newbie fresh off the iron of the chunin exams."

It was at this point Naruto interjected "Oh yeah, I actually met some blonde haired girl who wanted me to take her around on a date, but I just started dating Hinata so I turned her down. She was kind of bitchy anyways so I dodged a bullet there."

"What! How dare you break my sweet Tsukiko-chan's heart. I oughta beat you with with my mace you whisker-faced teme!" Kotetsu continued his angered rambling towards Naruto who seemed rather irritated by it.

"So Shikamaru, I've heard a lot about this Shou Tucker guy today. But the problem is I don't know what makes him so important besides him being the captain of Division 12." Naruto asked his friend, still completely ignoring the rankings of Kotetsu who was currently being held back by his partner.

"I really have to explain this to you Naruto? What a drag, I feel like some sort of exposition fairy. You were gone for six years, so you probably wouldn't know this but Danzō actually implemented a new system called the Chimera Program a few months after you ran off. The basic gist of it is that they find roadkill, wild carcasses, or other shit like that from across the world and sew them up into the living weapons. Kind of his replacement for you in a sense."

"Only a sick mind like his could come up with something like that." Naruto stated with plain disgust in his voice.

"Yeah I'd guess you'd have to be. But one man's mind wasn't quite like that, being sick in a whole different way. He wanted to make it intelligent. After quite some time of working in the scientific community of Division 12, he somehow managed to make one capable of understanding and speaking in human language. When he finally succeeded he was promoted to Captain on the spot, since the old one had just kicked the bucket."

"No way. This guy is either a genius or certifiably insane. Is…this thing still around." Naruto asked, stuttering with confusion and slight fear in his voice from eccentric this man seemed. And he didn't seem like the good kind of eccentric he was used to dealing with in the Grand Line.

"No, it died about a week after it was made. It apparently refused to eat, so starvation set in pretty quickly."

"Hm. This mission gets even weirder by the sec-" Naruto was cut off when a howl rang out, and a dog shaped shadow flew over him. Before he knew what had happened a bushy yellow dog had tackled him and pinned him to the ground, seeming quite content with laying on the Jinchuriki.

"Hey where'd the dog come from? You know anything about this Kiba?" Kotetsu asked after he finally managed to calm down.

"Oh hahaha, just because my clan works best with dogs doesn't mean we control every dog this side of the Red Line! Right Akamaru?" Kiba asked his canine friend, who responded quickly with a hearty and cheerful bark.

"Daddy!"

The group turned around to see that they made it to their destination without even realizing and were right in front of the large and beautiful hotel simply referred to as "The Castle". But was surprised the more was that a little girl that was no more than four with waist length brown hair braided into pigtails staring at them with a big grin on her face from the front door.

"Daddy there are ninja out here. Do you see them?"

After she called to her father a meek and gangly looking man who appeared to be in his early fourties with balding brown hair and small circular glasses came out from behind the door "Nina, I told you to close the door so Alexander wouldn't get out. You know how affectionate he can get with strangers."

"I'm sorry, where are my manners. You must be the examiners sent by Hokage-Sama. Just come with me and I'll see to it that you get your rooms for the next day or two." The man turned the team outside with porch who seemed very confused, with the exception of Naruto who was still being used as a pillow by Alexander.

"You've gotta be kidding me. This geek's the captain of Division 12?"

* * *

"I simply must apologize for the condition of my inn. But ever since my wife left me this place has been a wreck. I may an expert at scientific experimentation but it's quite the contrary for keeping places clean for very long." Shou explained while pouring jasmine tea for his guests, who were now sitting in his dining room.

"You sure do apologize a lot don't you Tucker-senpai? It's no big deal, really! My apartment is much worse than this, and that's when it's clean " Naruto told the captain who quickly thanked him.

"Thank you for you kind words Cinderface-san. And I must say it's quite an honor to have such valuable members of Konoha's Shinobi Corps in my home. Cinderface, the heir to the Nara Clan, the lieutenants of Division 9…the guy with the red marks on his face over there." Shou stumbled a bit on the last part, visibly offending Kiba.

"I'm Kiba Inuzuka, get it right!"

"Of course Inuzuka-san, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Now Cinderface-san, I was wondering if you could help with a little experiment I was working on. I understand you have a kyuubi biju in that red katana of yours." Tucker asked while pointing to Kuruma who was hitched to his side.

"Yeah, so what does it have to do with anything?" Naruto asked before taking a sip from his tea. Unfortunately for him this particular tea turned out to be very steaming and instantly burned his tongue and sent him flying back out of his chair "Ack! Holy shit that"s frickin' hot!"

"Oh, I'm sorry about that Cinderface-san. Anyways, was wondering if you would allow me to run some tests concerning its youkai to find the difference between that of it and our chakra."

_'Naruto is right, this old geezer does apologize a lot. How troublesome."_

Before he had time to get back up and answer Akamaru's growls came from the othe side of the table as he angrily tried to pull to pull the captain out from his chair "Akamaru what are you doing? I thought you were playing with Alexander and Nina outside."

"Don't worry about it Inuzuka-san. Not all dogs react as well to strangers as Alexander, so they'll be quite protective."

"But Akamaru never acts like this to new people. Unless they've got an enemy scen-" Kiba tried to explain while struggling with his incensed canine. When he finally managed to pull Akamaru off Shou's jacket he went flying into someone else walking into the room, who responded with a yelp while dropping what she was carrying, resulting in it shattering on the tile below.

Kiba immediately turned around, worried he might've ran into the Captain's daughter, only to have a blush spread across his face. The girl that he stumbled into was pretty to say the least, with purple tied loosely in the front and deep onyx eyes, wearing a sleeveless tunic with yellow sash tied around her waist and brown shorts. But the most striking feature about her were the bandages covering the left side of her face.

The normally incredibly confident Kiba was utterly tongue tied for a good thirty seconds before returning to his normal self, before getting up, and pulling her the girl up by the arm "Hey babe, you got a map of the South Blue I could use? Cause I'm getting lost in your eyes."

"Nice work man." Kotetsu said to the gennin with a large grin on his face, while Isaribi, Shikamaru, Akamaru, and Izumo only responded with a cringe, as would have Naruto if he weren't still on the floor from the recoil of the blazing hot tea.

"And…there goes my lunch." Izumo groaned with the cringe still stuck on his face, and threw the cup of tea behind him only for it to land on the already burning Naruto's face. The screams of agony and rage that rang out both surprised and scared Izumo, and the latter feeling only grew when a very pissed off Naruto got up from the ground.

"Naruto, I am so sorry!"

"Sorry my ass you neat freak teme! I'm going to give you another scar on your stomach." Naruto chased him around the room, much to the amusement of Mr. Tucker who chuckled slightly before turning a judgemental eye to the girl laying the broken bowls of ramen.

"Master Tucker, please forgive me. I didn't mean to drop the lunch!" The girl pleaded with voice quaking in fear.

While he kept the judgmental leer for a moment he seemed to remember something, so it dropped into a more friendly gaze "It's no worry Isaribi. Just be sure to clean it it up while these nice folks are examining my library."

She seemed very confused at first, though she quickly regained her composure and ran off to follow the order. Shikamaru was still curious as to who this mystery girl was "Hey Jiisan, who was that girl just now?"

"Oh I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier. That's my lieutenant Isaribi. She's the only one allowed into the staff room of my hotel besides me and Nina." Shou explained as he stood up from his chair and pointed behind him "In fact I think it's time I show you what I've been working on. Consider this the start of my examination."

"Wait!" Kotetsu yelled before excitedly asking the man sitting adjacent to him and Shikamaru "First I got to know, is your lieutenant single? Come on man don't leave me hanging! She got a boyfriend, fiancé, husband, ex who wants her back? Please hook me up!"

"Cradle robber" Shikamaru insulted the chunin with a sigh.

* * *

After the chaos had calmed down the group of shinobi calmly walked through the entrance to the staff part of The Castle Inn, despite how creepy the research lab section of the path was. It looked like something straight out of a b-movie with screeching chimeras and jars filled with animal skulls. The sight only made the already unnerved Naruto more suspicious of Shou Tucker than he already was.

"It's actually a little embarrassing. I'm considered to be the star of the show when it comes to the Chimera Program, but in recent times I haven't seen much progress. It's gotten so bad Danzō-sama has even threatened to revoke my position as captain of Division 12. That's why you're here."

"Great not only am I on a delivery boy mission, but I'm on one for that prick." Naruto complained due to his burning of hatred of the councilor before Shou Tucker opened the doors in front of them to reveal a large library.

"As you can probably tell, this is my library. I have books of all kinds here from around the world. Please feel free to enjoy them." Shou informed the team, causing them all to disperse.

As to be expected each of the men found books pertaining to particular interests. Kotetsu found a book of 101 pick up lines,Izumo found a book on how to avoid getting sick, even Shikamaru found a book on how to improve your amount of sleep. Only Naruto picked up a book he would normally have no interest in, and simply stared at the cover.

"Is something wrong here Cinderface-sama?" Shou approached the swordsman and asked him, only to break out into shock and embarresment when he showed him the cover. Icha Icha.

"This is why your wife left you, isn't it?"

"That doesn't really matter much does it. Come over to my lab table so we can go over the experiment." The embarresed scientist quickly changed the subject.

The other one who was being judged on this mission, Kiba was reading through a book of animal related jutsu with Akamaru lying next to him "Just think of it Akamaru. Soon we'll be a chunin, and on the same level as Naruto. Then we can show him how strong we've gotten in a rematch. Without energy steroids this time."

His concentration was briefly broken from the book however when he saw Nina peeking out at him from behind the shelf he was leaning against. The little girl quickly ran behind the cover of the shelf, only to peer back out again "Hey Big Bush Dog Man, wanna play?"

"Umm, sure what do you wanna play kid?" Kiba asked, surprised at her playful offer.

"I don't understand how you can think those cheesy lines will work on women Kotetsu."

"At least I've had a girlfriend before!"

"And yet she dumped you for a younger man!" The guards bickered back and forth, before the giggling of a little girl came from a nearby row of shelves.

The two men followed the sound to see a very shocking sight. Kiba playing horsey with the daughter of Shou Tucker with a big joyful grin on his face. A grin that was replaced with an embarresed jaw drop when he noticed the two others standing in the corner with amused smiles.

"I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. A hot blooded Inuzuka playing with a toddler." Kotetsu teased Kiba who predictably didn't take it very well.

"Hey! Even tough guys like me can have a little fun with kids sometimes!"

"Yeah right! Who knew you were such Kiba. Better than the haughty jackass we usually know!"

"Watch your language in front of the lady Baka!" Kiba scolded his superior only to realize he was just digging himself in further. Incredibly embarresed he slumped over while Kotetsu and Izumo laughed as they walked off.

"You're really silly Kiba-niisan" Nina said she slid off Kiba's body. When he heard this he straightened himself back up to face the child with a touched and teary eyed look on his face.

"Kiba-niisan. I like the sound of that actually." Kiba said sounding as confident as ever before he heard somebody else approach from behind "If your gonna make fun of me Shikamaru, Izumo and Kotetsu already took care of that so you don't need to worry."

Who was actually standing there surprised him though as it wasn't any of his usual comrades but Isaribi "I hope this makes you realize that your shitty way of flirting isn't the way of getting to know a girl, damn meathead. Heheh, oh right I better watch my language unless I want you to get mad."

"Yeah I guess your right. Sorry about that." Kiba said with a blush on his face as the girl teased him as opposed to getting angry as previous.

This didn't go unnoticed by Nina who decided to tease both of them "Kiba and Isa sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!"

"Don't be ridiculous Nina-chan I only just met this guy!" Isaribi defended with an equally big blush on his face and a noticeable squeak in her voice. The moment he heard it Kiba's face became even redder and dropped to the ground semi-conscious and drooling.

"Kawaii"

All the while Shikamaru was watching with a shine in his eyes "Who knew Kiba would end up like this on this mission. Well both of them like to act tough but have cracks in this facade which the other is attracted to, so I shouldn't be surprised."

"AAAAAAH! WHAT THE HELL!" He was broken from his thinking when at the desk in the room Naruto had once again been knocked out of his seat by Alexander."Alright you damn dog. If that's the way you wanna play then fine!" Naruto got up while dropping his swords to the ground and chasing after the waving dog barehanded "I Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto will now use my considerable strength to defeat you!"

Shou Tucker once again laughed in amusement before noticing someone else next to his desk "Hello Izumo-san, sorry I didn't notice you there. I'm terribly sorry I have to ask this but what do you need?"

"Nothing much really, I just wanted to know how your research with Naruto was going?" Izumo asked, much to Shou's sorrow as he looked down in anxiety.

"Not very good I'm afraid. We haven't found anything that could be of any interest to Division 12 as of late and it might take up to a month to be able to do so. That and the news of all these dissapearances have been severely decreasing stays at the inn."

"I hate to hear that Captain, but I'm afraid that excuse probably won't cut it for that old prune Danzō. And I can't forge a report or I could get court marshaled. I'll see what we can do but this might be the end of the road for you."

The only thing Izumo could do now was leave Tucker alone to ponder on this news. And he did, but not with a look of worry. But a look of planning. A horrible, horrible plan. The only noise he heard in his thoughts, was Akamaru growling next to him, angry and protective as a dog could get.

* * *

Things went on like this for several more hours with Kiba and Naruto playing around with them. Even Kurama and Shikamaru got in on it by using their powers to make monsters that would chase them around. This lasted until the lack of light in the room became to apparent to ignore. As all the ninja got tired they gathered in front of the exit to the library to call it a night.

"I hope you all had a nice day in the library. You must be dog tired." Shou said as the last statement caught the attention of Alexander "We can complete the examination tomorrow, so no worries there!And I got you some rooms at the inn to stay in.

"That's good, I'm gonna call it a night. See all you troublesome folks in the morning." Shikamaru said as he grabbed the key from Mr. Tucker and went off to his respective room.

Nina however, like most children what are her age didn't want to go to bed quite yet "Do I really have to go to bed right now?"

"Listen to your otou-senpai Nina. I'll tell you what, we can play again tomorrow, 'kay?" Kiba asked his newfound friend who seemed content with that.

"Okay Aniki!"

"Heheh, you're not bad with kids you know. Maybe you should join Division 8 and become a teacher at the Academy." Isaribi suggested to him to which he responded bashfully.

"Hey, I learned it all from my own Hana-neechan."

"I hope you don't mind but I'm going to hit the sack too. And Captain, don't forget inspection's tomorrow!" Izumo said with a yawn as he retrieved his key and retired to his room, with Kotetsu following shortly after.

The guard's last remark seemed to cause Shou great distress, something which did not go unnoticed by Naruto "Oy, Tucker-senpai. What's the matter you seem a little off."

"Last year I didn't get a good report, so I'm worried another failure to produce will cost me my rank as Division 12 Captain. The hotel was suffering massive losses in profit due to all the missing people so as you can imagine we were very poor. My wife hated living like that, and eventually left me for a pirate. This family can't afford to lose its only loss of real revenue it has."

"Don't worry Otou-san, if the mean old man says no to you, then me and Alexander will bark at him untill he says yes!" Nina claimed confidently much to the amusement of the others.

"You tell him gaki!" Naruto told the child with snicker _'If only Jiisama could get around Danzō-teme that easily.'_

"Hey Nina, I have an idea how about tonight you and I can play together. Come by at around 11:30, I should be done discussing my findings with Lieutenant Isaribi by then." Shou Tucker asked his young toddler who responded by jumping onto his neck and hanging onto him like a spider monkey.

"Did you hear that Aniki? Otou-san's going to play with me tonight." Nina cheered as all but Akamaru looked on in happiness. In fact, the white dog looked angrier than ever and began barking angrily at the man.

"Akamaru what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you acting so hostile towards Mr. Tucker." Kiba lifted up his dog and tried to pull him away from the man, but Akamaru continued to struggle "Hey, Naruto mind helping me get Akamaru back to my room?"

"Sure thing." Naruto said as got up and restrained the dog, carrying him down the hallway towards the room.

"I'm sorry Mr. Tucker. I promise I'll have him behaving better by morning." Kiba called down the hallway before shutting the door and keeping the enraged Akamaru inside.

"It's no problem Inuzuka-sama. _No problem at all._"

* * *

Within a few minutes of arriving in his room, Izumo found himself completely unpacked and ready to go to bed _'I'm surprised that Shou Tucker has been so strong throughout this situation. I feel really sorry for the poor man. I wish there was something I could do that wouldn't bite us both in the ass. Knowing Danzō-me, he'd probably send someone to confirm the discovery the second Hokage-sama gave him the report. Pretty weird how this place has those soundproofing foams on the wall though."_

Next, being the germaphobe that he is Izumo began scrubbing down parts of the room, even the aforementioned soundproof foam glued to the walls. Eventually he came across a trunk in the back of the room, under the window. It only took a few moments to clean the exterior, considering Izumo's experience and speed when it came to this. But when came to the interior, Izumo felt something odd.

Something that told him this particular trunk should not be opened in anyway, or else dire consequences would occur. The lock on the trunk easily supported this idea. Unfortunately for him his curiosity got the better of him and he broke the lock with a small chakra infused punch, before opening it up. A decision he regretted once seeing the contents inside.

The skeletons of two children no more than Nina's age.

"W-what the hell is this?" Izumo said before hearing a small creak at his feet. He looked down to see he was standing at the edge of a trap door "What are all these crazy death traps doing in The Castle? Is this why all those people went missing?"

Izumo was distracted from his horrified questions when he heard his door locking behind him. He turned to see that his door was indeed locked and bolted from the outside and Shou Tucker stood on the outside with a large smile on his face. Though unlike other times, the smile was not friendly and welcoming, but completely psychotic.

"Just goes to show you one of you would figure out. I thought it would be the Cinderface demon though. I was really hoping I could make a chimera out of him but you had to go and ruin it!" Shou Tucker raved and ranted seeming completely out of character to the kind and fatherly man they had known all day much to Izumo's horror.

"You don't wanna be court marshaled eh? Well too bad teme! Don't worry though I'm sure you'll have a fair trial. A trial by fire!" Shou yelled before revealing a switch in his right hand which he pressed and made good on his threat. Suddenly, jet flames shot out from the small holes in the ceiling roasting one of two of Division 9's lieutenants alive in one fell swoop.

And while Izumo's screams of agony were masked by the soundproof walls, Shou Tucker's crimes as a serial murderer would not remain a secret for long, as he would commit another crime that night which would reveal all his crimes in the blink of an eye.

* * *

"Akamaru what's gotten into you? Why are you acting so hostile towards Captain Tucker?" Kiba scolded his best friend who seemed very irritated at being dragged away from the doctor. Meanwhile Naruto simply sat back and watched while glaring at Kiba as if waiting for him to realize something.

He got this wish when Kiba began to notice that the surrounding items of the seemed peculiar for him "Wait a minute! Bottles of booze, packages of ramen noodles, sword sharpening stones?! Naruto you bastard! This is your room not mine!"

"I know, but we needed to talk and I didn't feel like walking all the way back to my room afterwards." Naruto stated before yawning loudly and resuming his talk "Look, you've been acting differently ever since we got to The Castle and I think I know why."

"Different? What the hell do you mean different? I'm the same old stud as ever. As an old friend you should know that."

"You literally tried to kill me in the preliminaries. We only started to like each other 2 1/2 months ago. That and even now you still seem to be confusing stub with overconfident womanizing former dickhead." Naruto said to him as brutally honest as possible.

"Where did you even learn to be so harsh man…" Kiba said with tears comically rolling down his face.

"Think I'm blunt, try dealing with my Niisan. Zoro for the record, not the one who's running a crime syndicate. But he's nothing compared to how bitchy Nami can be when you cross her. _Still paying off that debt._" Naruto grimaced at the mere thought of the large fine the navigator had placed on him.

"So aside from that, what was it you called me in here for?"

"Simple. You seem different from that same old overconfident womanizing former dickhead whenever you run into children. There's no doubt you enjoy playing with them after what I've seen today. But you also seem different around Isaribi-senpai." Naruto analyzed the Inuzuka more and more.

"Big deal, she's hot! So what does that mean Bushido Freud?" Kiba mocked him, only for Naruto to explain.

"Simple, I can tell that this goes a lot further than simple physical attraction. If it didn't you'd just say some corny pick up line and she'd kick you in the balls like the first time. But I saw how you reacted to other things you know! Like that crack in her voice."

"Damn it, How embarrassing!" Kiba yelled realizing that it really happened "So what, are you saying I'm in love with this girl or something?"

"It's a possibility. More likely though it's just a simple crush at this point, which will grow into something much bigger. That's what love usually starts as." Naruto said, and by this point having been brought down to reality by his friend Kiba got up and left the room with a still heavily resisting Akamaru.

The only thing he had left to say now was a meek "Thanks for the talk man." before shutting the door and heading back to his room.

_**"Damn gaki. I didn't know that you were such a love expert!"** _Kuruma complimented his weilder on this sudden knowledge.

"I owe it all to Robin-neechan. Zoro's a great big brother and all but he's no love expert, and the whole Enies Lobby thing was around the time I was really starting to miss Hinata-chan. And to top it off I didn't even know why. Thankfully, she managed to help me sort it all out."

**_"Shame I didn't see much of her thanks to the whole invasion thing. She was so cool, I would like to have seen if she was into guys with whit…AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"_**

In response to the sudden screaming from his demon partner, Naruto immediately began panicking himself "What the hell is the matter with you?"

**_"I can sense massive chakra disturbances remember? It's even worse when I'm in my sword form since metal can vibrations better than normal flesh or fur."_**

"This is getting weird. I need to see what's going on out there." Naruto ran to the door and swung it open, to run out of the room. But to his surprise instead of going out into the hallway he slammed into a wall face first. He fell back to see that the door frame only opened up to a wall "But Kiba and Akamaru just went out that door. What the hell is going on this inn?"

**"Tatsu Maki"**

* * *

Kiba pulled his heavily resisting dog out of the room eventually stumbling down much like he had earlier during Aka,aru's first encounter with Shou Tucker. He heard a small shift in the door he just exited from but thought nothing of it and started to scold the misbehaving Akamaru once again.

"Seriously buddy this is getting out of hand. Normally you're the voice of reason between us, so this is new to me. But you need to tell me what's going on!" Kiba demanded of him, and Akamaru only responded with a familiar expression pointed towards Shou Tucker's room. The same one he had when Team 8 and Naruto saw Gaara in action at the Forest of Death.

"You really don't trust him do you buddy? Alright I'll go see what's up with him it it calms you down."

Suddenly Akamaru picked up the scent of one of the hotel's residents and ran towards their silhouette at the end of the hallway tackling them.

"Get off of me! Alexander is that you?"

"Wait a minute…Isaribi-chan?" Kiba recognized the voice instantly and ran down the hallway after his dog.

"No please don't look at me!" Isaribi cried as she shoved the dog off her and attempted to shushin away. This was to no avail as Kiba grabbed her hands before she could complete the handsign and saw in full view what she was trying to hide. A bleeding wound in her head and arm, the latter of which had a large porcelain shard lodged in it which looked similar to the ones used in the ramen bowls they were going to eat lunch from earlier that day.

"Isaribi-chan…who did this to you? Please tell me it wasn't…Please tell me it wasn't Mr. Tucker!" Kiba yelled at the top of his lungsto the injured lieutenant. To his shock and horror her eyes darted to the right revealing exactly who it was.

"It…wwas my punishment for breaking the bowls at lunch. Please don't worry about it."

Her pleads went unheard by the enraged man who turned to his partner and closest friend and commanded in a subdued tone of voice "Akamaru, find Nina and make sure she's still in bed. I need to have a talk with this bastard."

"I said don't worry about it you dumbass! It's my problem so I'll deal with it myself. I don't need you to butt in!" Isaribi screamed at him, only for both of them to notice that the angrier she got more green scales grew. The moment she realized Kiba and Akamaru had seen this as well and was staring at them with shock in his eyes, she took of down the passageways of the inn.

"Wait a minute! What's going on here." Kiba called to her as she ran away at top notch speed. He looked at Akamaru who gave him a leer that said _"What are you waiting for?! Get on my back and follow her!". _Seeing little point in arguement Kiba followed his partner's orders and gave chase.

Not long after he and Akamaru reached a dead end, but Isaribi was nowhere to be found. Thinking there was no other place she could have hidden Kiba opened one of the nearby doors to check if she was in there. It was a fake, and lead only to a plank of wood. Though he was confused for a brief moment, he tried another door right after that one. It was a fake too. Another one. Fake. Yet another one. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DAMN FAKE DOORS IN THIS SHITTY HOTEL!" Kiba screamed in frustration before he noticed Akamaru was barking at staircase in front of them. Wondering what the problem he looked up to see Isaribi at the top, with the staircase leading right into the ceiling, appearing to be half fish.

"Damn fake staircase! Please don't wake anyone up!"

"Isaribi-chan. You're a-a"

"A smiley user." Naruto said as he suddenly appeared and joined in on this discovery "I had my suspicions about this guy considering his involvement with Danzō-teme, but I never expected this. Turning one of your own men into a devil fruit user against their will."

"Wait a minute! When the hell did you get here?" Kiba stuttered at this illogical appearance.

"I ran into a fake door back at my room." Naruto explained while pointing to the large hole he had cut into the wall.

"Please don't look at me. It's just like the Captain said, I'm a monster."

Naruto simply walked up the false stairs and patted Isaribi on her scaly head "Hey join the club. I've been called a monster for 12 years straight, and when I manage to get away from it all, the World Government starts hounding me. Though admittedly that was a lot better then being in Konoha.…Look the point of what I'm trying to say is your not alone."

"Oh, thanks for the reassurance."

"Welcome." Naruto said briefly while clicking the Shodai Kitetsu from its sheath and flicking it out "Hey Akamaru, I trust Kiba already told you to make sure Nina's in bed. Well consider that an order from me as well."

"If that bastard was in trouble before he just signed his death warrant now." Kiba said as he slammed his fists together.

A door further down the hallway opened up to see Shikamaru still in his sweats, looking very annoyed of having been woken up by the chaos "This is what I wake up to? What a drag. That old fart better have a damn good excuse for all of this."

* * *

The three shinobi stomped down to the master laboratory with full intent on confronting Shou Tucker over his actions towards his lieutenant, with the latter following after begging them to rethink the action. But there was an obstacle in that the door was locked "You've got to be frickin' kidding me. That coward locked himself up in his room.

"It's his room Kiba of course he'd lock it at night. I just hope that means Nina's not still in there, cause I don't think she'd like it if you beat the shit out of her otou-teme. In the meantime there's an easy way around this. Naruto?" Shikamaru asked the Shichibukai expectantly.

"Of course. You know if doing this wasn't so fun I'd be really tired of doing it again for you guys." Naruto joked before kicking down the doors to the lab in one stomp.

On the other side of the door stood a smiling Shou Tucker, and a dog like figure hunched in the corner with messy brown hair "Oh good you guys are still awake. I have something to show you."

"Cut the shit Tucker." Naruto said angrily has he wielded the Shodai Kitetsu in preparation to strike before a shadow rose up and blocked his path.

"Please just go to bed Cinderface." Isaribi continued to plead

"Hold it there Naruto, she's got a point. I think we might want to see this."

"The Nara's right Cinderface-san. I've done it again. I've made a chimera capable of human speech." Shou motioned to the creature in the corner who looked at the three shinobi with blank white eyes.

Naruto eyes widened surprise at this fact as he stared into the chimeras eyes "No way in hell. He actually did it again?"

"Don't believe me? That's all fine and good.I can just show you, now pay close attention. This man is Naruto-san. Say it with me, Naruto-san." Shou goaded the creature into speaking, which it did in a garbled and distorted voice.

**"Naru-to-san."**

"Very good. See what I mean now?"

"I can't believe my eyes, and this is coming from the guy who's seen a giant raccoon and leapord men." Naruto still incredibly shocked crouched down to try and get a closer look "I know you can talk now, so prove it to me one last time. Say the red-cheeked guys name. Say Kiba."

**"Ki-ba. Ki-ba. Ki-ba. An-ni-ki-Ki-ba."**

The moment they heard the final part of what the being had to say nearly everyone in the room felt an expression of horror spread across their faces. As they knew only one person in this household called Kiba by that name.

"Captain Tucker when did you get promoted to Captain?"

"Why I believe that was 2 years ago."

"And when did your wife leave you?" Naruto asked again as he stood back up and clicked Shodai Kitetsu out for the second time in a row.

"Once again, that was about two years ago."

"Good now I have one more question. Nina and Alexander, where the hell are they. Cause the answer better be still in their rooms or crate!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs as he pointed the tip of his blade at Shou's throat.

"Well I should have expected the demon boy to figure out so quickly." Shou Tucker sneered at the swordsman threatening him while straightening his glasses.

"You sick twisted piece of pigshit. Two years ago, to get promoted to the rank of Captain you turned your own wife into a chimera! And this time, you did it to your daughter and her pet dog. And to keep your lieutenant in line you turned her into a human chimera so you could do whatever you wanted to her!" Naruto revealed aloud with more venomous hatred in his voice then almost ever before.

"Captain Tucker, How could you?" Isaribi asked her superior, though this time instead of fear the question was laced with hatred and rage.

The moment he heard this Kiba dropped to his knees with the sickest feeling he'd ever had in his stomach, so he turned to Akamaru who had recently returned from his mission "No this is a load of bullshit it has to be. Nina is still in bed right Akamaru?" To his everlasting horror the dog responded with the shake of a head.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't skin you alive right here and now, you greedy bastard!" Naruto growled to the snickering man which only made even more him infuriated "ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!"

"Of course you would side with that Monster Bitch, you're one and the same after all. A pathetic human being sewn to a mishapen monstrosity. Only true geniuses like me could understand, my intellect is so great it's an honor to serve as my test subject. That's why I built this hotel in the first place so anyone who entered could be my test subject. With traps and dead ends I could easily lure them to be dissected alive. And with soundproof gas chambers and ovens I could easily measure the amount of time it could take to ! In fact, why don't you check on your comrade Izumo? I'm sure he's dying to se-"

"YOU BASTAAAAAAAARRRRRD!" The psychopathic man was so focused on egging Naruto further on he was completely unexpected to find Kiba socking him in the jaw and repeating the blow indefinitely "I'LL FRICKING KILL YOU, YOU MONSTER! HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO HORRIBLE TO AN INNOCENT YOUNG WOMAN, NOT TO MENTION YOUR OWN DAUGHTER?! SHE TRUSTED IN YOU NO MATTER WHAT, AND YOU REPAY BY HER BY DOING THIS TO HER?! I HATE YOU!"

"Kiba." Shikamaru whispered just as frozen in terror as everyone else, shocked to see the normally weak and arrogant Kiba angered to this point.

As to be expected Kiba refused to stop his assault on Shou Tucker even for a moment, just as Naruto refused to even think about stopping him. The only thing that caused him to halt the assault was as plead from the creature that used to be Nina and Alexander **"****An-ni-ki-Ki-ba. Please…stop…hurting…daddy…Why…are…you…hurting…Daddy?"**

This was the final straw for Kiba who let the beaten and bruised man go, before collapsing to his knees and sobbing his eyes out. In the meantime Isaribi and Shikamaru sat down in front of the mutated child pondering the next course of action.

"Is there anyway we can undo this. Get the two of you back to normal. Shikamaru asked the chimera girl with a cracking voice.

"I wish I could say there was something we could do, I've tried it myself more times than I can count. But since both smileys and chimeras are such a new field, I doubt even Vegapunk could turn either of us back to normal."

There was only one happy face in the entire room. Shou Tucker stared at the alarm clock resting on his desk with the biggest grin he could muster with the bruises Kiba left him "I made it just in time. I get to to remain the captain of Division 12!"

"Like hell your staying the captain! After the shit you've pulled you'll be lucky if you aren't sent to Impel Down." Naruto told the deranged doctor who was very unhappy about this to say the least.

He stood up and reached for a switch at the wall of the room and started ranting even more manically then before "NO! I WON'T ALLOW ANY OF YOU TO REVEAL TO THE HOKAGE WHAT I'VE DONE! I'LL KILL YOU ALL BEFORE I ALL I LET THAT HAPPEN!"

**"Yakkodori"**

Shou Tucker never had time to make good of that threat, as in the blink of an eye Naruto had completely severed hthe arm holding the switch with the Shodai Kitetsu causing him to fall to the ground, gripping the stump with his his remaining hand and screaming in agony.

"There. A fitting punishment for swine like you, Division 12 Captain Shou Tucker." Naruto spat at the man one last time while unsheathing Kuruma and walking towards the wall outside the door, while the man ranted and raved like an provoked tiger in its cage.

"GIVE ME BACK MY ARM YOU DEMON BRAT, GIVE ME BACK MY ARM!"

**"****An-ni-ki-Ki-ba. Can…we…play…again…now?" **

The only thing Kiba could bring himself to do now was cry and kennel in the spot he fell. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Akamaru who nudged him constantly "Please forgive me. If only had listened. Then I could have saved her."

Finally, in one explosion of demonic fury Naruto began hacking at the wall he stood in front of with Kuruma and Shodai Kitetsu. On and on and on until there was nothing but a wreck left in carnage. Once he was incapable of doing anymore damage to the wall, Naruto let out a a primal scream with tears rolling down his face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

* * *

It only took a half hour reinforcements to arrive, along with marines. Right now those involved with the mission were mourning on the front steps to the inn. Arguably the least responsive of the group besides Kiba was Kotetsu who lost his partner and closest friend to the incident. Only Naruto was able to talk right now and that was only because he had to, as to debrief everything to his own captain, Anko Umino.

"If there was ever an example of Satan's work on this earth, this is it. According to what I've been told by Shakaku Nara, Shou Tucker will be dishonorably of his rank and tried at a later date. The sole bright side to all this is that by technicality the mission was a success, so the Inuzuka gaki should be happy to know he's now officially a chunin."

"That's hardly the way anyonae would want to gain rank. I'm not sure he'll ever recover from this, and now that I think of it neither will anyone involved. How can I be the world's greatest swordsman if I can't even protect one child?" Naruto thought aloud before an average marine came up to him.

"Sir Naruto, I have some news I need to report and questions I need to ask."

"Well then, cut the sir crap and get to the point!"

"YyYes sir. We've secured a perimeter around the The Castle. It should be impossible for the fugitive to escape. And also, what do you wish for us to do with his lieutenant?" The marine stumbled.

"Nothing. She's as much of a victim as anyone in this." Naruto ordered as he looked over the roof of the hotel to see a cloudy and rainy day horizon. A day which would transform into a hurricane very soon.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the laboratory Shou Tucker lie in agony and anger as his blood stained the floor "Damn that no good Kyuubi brat. He's cost me everything including my jutsu. I swear if it's the last thing I do I'll make him pay."

"Is that so?" The humiliated man turned around to see a red haired woman in an Akatsuki uniform with a scratched up Konoha hitai-te and rinnegan eyes stood in the door way and began walking closer.

On her way however she noticed the chimera and took pity on the creature "Such a sad being. It's existence must be so torturous that ending it would be an act of mercy."

**"Shinra Tensei"**

Within an instant both Nina and Alexander departed this world as the chimera lay dead on the floor. Shou wasn't very happy about this but for different reasons than to be expected "What have you done? My glorious experiment. You killed it!"

"Do not be distressed. I require your services for a much greater stroke of genius I am sure you can complete." The woman said with her voice cold as ice.

"Who the hell are you?"

"…I am Deva Path."

* * *

**(A/N): Welcome to Arc 2 everybody! Deck the halls with depression! This was a very hard chapter to write and not just because of the extreme word length. It was mainly because of how traumatic it was to sit through that episode again! And don't worry as implied bringing Shou Tucker into this story had more point than just scarring all you guys and myself. His next invention will become a driving point for this arc's conflict. I really did try to give him more depth this time so it wouldn't just be a rehash of the FMA episode. The whole killer hotel was actually based off a real life man H.H. Holmes. Unfortunately with finals coming up I don't know when I'll be able release the next one. I can only hope you enjoyed this one as a lead in for what's to come.**

**On a more positive note I'm introducing something new this time.**

**What the Heck Was That?:**

**It's no secret that the world of anime can be a very weird place. So I've given you ample opportunity to torture me with some of these weirder anime, by making me look over the weirdest anime the world has to offer. But of course there's some rules.**

**1\. Nothing NSFW!: There are some things I do NOT want to talk about, much less see!"**

** Yaoi/Yuri: I'm not applying double standards this time around. I know no one wants me to talk about Yaoi, but I'm going to be fair and hold that standard**

**Now that's out of the way, it's time I took my leave. Fullmetal Alchemist is a great series, manga and both anime (though admittedly I enjoy Brotherhood more), and a large part of this chapter was trying to convince people to watch it for themselves. Now assuming I didn't make you too depressed, I'll see you next time. That is, if the rest of this semester doesn't kill me. _Eeeeeeevvvviiilll_**

**Next Chapter: Attack on Sunagakure **

**_. . ._**


	22. Attack on Sunagakure

**Disclaimer:…jioednkfbcuefnvior vihebcrijf!**

**Ikō: Aw shit. Skillet went through finals again. This is gonna be a bumpy ride.**

**Skillet: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLL!**

**Greed: Alright we get it. What are these finals things anyways?**

**Ikō: Remember the Promised Day? Well it's kind of like that, except there aren't freaky white cyclops zombies trying to eat you're face off. They're replaced with 11th grade teachers.**

**Greed: So in short, this is going to suck?**

**Ikō: Yep, I can only imagine how Cedric is doing. Jerk won't even suffer through this with us, instead he's over in his fancy horror story.**

**L: It's hardly very fancy. This story has more than a hundred more hits than that one. Even with the recent review glitch.**

**Skillet:7,)8)?8)(,)8hbjbfhklkojufrsecdzwavjkmippkmjgvftrs?€€€|]\\}!+¥=!~.]]|**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki **

**Chapter 20: Attack on Sunagakure**

* * *

Somewhere in the village of Amegakure, appropriately named as the rain never stopped except for one day a week, a large group of robe wearing fugitives was standing on the fingers of a very large and scary looking statue.

At the moment they were being addressed by a man with spiky orange hair standing on the far end of one of the statues "Now that we've all been introduced to Genius, it's time to adress other business. Heartless, I'll need you and Reaper to report here in three days to assist me in making Genius' new arm."

"Yes, Lord Pein. By the way, I think you forgot to mention who this fruitcake's partner is gonna be."

"Ah yes. For the time being he'll be partnered with Justice."

Lucci groaned at at the idea of having to work with such a man, another with familiar orange mask and childish voice verbally objected to this news "But Lord Pain, I thought Tobi would be Justice's partner!"

"That was originally the plan Faceless. But Justice specifically requested to have a more competent partner."

_'To be perfectly honest, I would have preferred being with the buffoon, to someone who reminds me so much of that brace faced teme.'_

"How long will this arm thing take you and Kakazu anyways Boss. I've got my eyes on sacrificing that sexy blonde Kumo Jinchuriki to Jashin." A smarmy voice came from a man on the left index finger of the statue with white slicked back hair.

"There will no longer be any need to do that Reaper. As of now we will be leaving the original method of capturing Jinchuriki one team at a time will no longer be a necessity. Thanks to the work of Genius, a new way of capture will be used once it is ready for usage in about three weeks."

As to be expected, Hidan didn't take this news well in the slightest "What?! The hell is this shit; Are we just not good enough now all the sudden?"

"We have done this method for the fifteen years this organization has been in place, yet we have only managed to obtain 1 out of nine biju. Even after combining several of our teams in Īsuki Pīku, we still had no luck obtaining the Cinderface Jinchuriki. If we ever want to complete our goals, we will need to adapt to the growing strength of the Jinchuriki."

"What a load of bullshit. Kyuubi-gaki beats a rookie and a fishman and suddenly he's practically the Fleet Admiral. If we just focused our energy in other Jinchuriki for once-"

"Watch your attitude Reaper. The next one we take down is Cinderface-me and that's final. That brat'll pay for tricking me like that!" Kisame claimed as he clenched his fists, enraged at the thought of his humiliating loss at the hands of Naruto.

"Enough of your foolish bickering. If you want to prove our old method is still relevant, than we shall give it one more chance." Konan, the dark and beautiful second in command of Akatsuki said, instantly silencing her subordinates "Scorpion, Artist, you shall be given the task of capturing the Fifth Kazekage Gaara Sabaku of the One Tailed Sand Racoon."

"Be warned though. This will not be like the Mizukage who was hated throughout the Water Country for his genocidal reign. Shukaku-san will likely have a multitude of shinobi at his beck and call." Pein warned the team of what was to come.

However, the hunched and crusty looking man resting on the left thumb of the statue didn't look very worried and actually chuckled a bit "Like that should be a problem. When you've got connections to Suna like me, it'll be like taking candy from a baby."

* * *

**_"Tatsu Maki"_**

_Naruto attempted another Santoryu technique, alone in a clearing somewhere. By this point in his training he had mastered both Ittoryu and Nitoryu to an extent, but Santoryu was a different story. The extra sword held by his bite through off his balance, and made it very hard to do any sort of technique, and usually ended with him falling on his ass._

_"Damn it. No matter how many times I try I can't seem to get this sword right." Naruto growled while recovering before turning to the clones he'd made to train "You guys manage to make any progress at all?"_

_"No." They all groaned simultaneously before exploding when Naruto's chakra finally ran out._

_"I wonder if I'll ever be able to get this down." Naruto thought aloud to himself before he heard something approaching from nearby._

* * *

*YAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNN*

Naruto awoke from memory/dream hybrid with a very loud yawn "Ever since Nina died, I've kept having memories play in my while I'm sleeping instead of dreams. This is a real pain, I'd really rather just sleep."

Just as Naruto said, it had been a week since the horrors in Nikkō Inn Town were revealed. Nina had been killed under circumstances along with every marine that had been guarding the backyard and Shou Tucker had escaped. It was assumed that Tucker had been the one responsible, and a 250,000,000 beri bounty was placed on his head.

Kurama felt his jailer seethe with rage at the thought of the missing nin scientist. Wanting to gain some distraction from the dark cloud that had been hanging over him ever since that mission began, Naruto walked outside into the drizzling rain which had been in Konoha for at least five days.

The swordsman walked through Konoha, intending on going to get a job at the Village Hall. On the way there he ran into a familiar face he hadn't seen since getting back from Marejois. A very chubby familiar face "Hey Naruto, long time no see. How've you been lately."

"Why are you asking that question? Everyone and there Aunt Ruth has heard about last week's mission."

"Chill dude, it was just a question. I was just asking cause you've actually been outside your house, better than Kiba anyways." Chouji explained the reason behind his question. Naruto was confused when Kiba was mentioned, which Chouji easily picked up on from the look of concern he had.

"According to Captain Tsume, the guy hasn't even stepped out of his room in days. The only one he allows in are Hana-senpai and that purple haired lieutenant girl. Not to mention my dad's been awful upset since Izumo was his lieutenant and all."

"That makes sense. He and Nina were awful close so by logic he'd be the most screwed up by what happened." Naruto looked the other way, not willing to look at someone while remembering the incident. But when he turned his head, his jaw dropped and eyes widened in typical manga fashion as he saw a completely abnormal sight.

A girl about his age with a noticeable tan, green hair, and pupil-less orange eyes, flew over the nearby river on large insect like wings with a spear that was radiating light. She swooped down into the river and with a gleeful cheer speared a large yellowtail from the river and jumped onto the other side.

All the while Naruto watched in utter bafflement "D…did someone spike my booze with something while I wasn't paying attention, or was that girl just flying?"

"Nope she was definitely flying. _Wasn't she an angel?_" Chouji gaped at the girl with a lovestruck tone to his voice.

"Are all my friends going to go through this? Honestly, if Shino was actually romantically active, I'm sure he'd fall for someone too." Naruto groaned at the absurdity of the sudden situation before something even stranger happened. The spear started glowing even more, before it started to change shape.

After a few moments had passed it had turned into a small blond haired boy about six years of age with bulbous orange eyes that had black lines running vertically underneath them. He wore a dark blue cloak that covered most of his lower body, held together by a orange pendant glued to a white bow. The moment the child came out of the weapon he began munching on the caught yellowtail.

"A demon weapon? Could that mean this girl's a…"

"Chomei, what do you think your doing eating my yellowtail? I caught it so I get to eat it!"

"Don't you know that yellowtail is good your strength. I wanna be a stronger weapon so I get to eat it!" The boy claimed his right to the fish in a high pitched voice typical of a boy his age.

"By that logic I should have the yellowtail since I wanna be stronger shinobi!"

"Fuu! Come on give me some yellowtail!" Chomei said childishly, though he actually was a child in terms of appearance.

Naruto winced when he heard the name of the girl, and not just because it was almost the exact same one as Danzō's deceased lackies _'Fuu. That name sounds pretty damn familiar. Something like Jiisama said before…'_

_"Of the nine jinchuriki there are Gaara Sabaku of the One Tailed Racoon, Yugito Nii of the Two Tailed Cat, Yagura of the Three Tailed Turtle, Roshi of the Four Tailed Monkey, Han of the Five Tailed Sheep, Utakata of the Six Tailed Slug, Fuu of the Seven Tailed Beetle-"_

_'That's it! Fuu Takino of Takigakure! Does that mean that gaki she's arguing over the yellow tail with is…the Nanabi?_"The spiky haired swordsman thought to himself in disbelief.

**_'Remember, if a Jinchuriki dies with a tailed beast still in it, then the host will be reincarnated into the biju and receive all memories from actual Biju and predecessors who died with the demon inside them. Takigakure is one of those places Jinchuriki are treated like shit if they don't keep it on the down low, so it's likely that child didn't have as much luck as you and was murdered. But I've still gotta wonder what its Jinchuriki doing so far away from her village."_**

_'Me too.' _Naruto telepathically said to his partner while watching the struggle for the yellowtail between tenant and warden on the other side of river _'But I have a bad feeling we're gonna find out real soon.'_

* * *

Far west of Konohagakure, another village which acted as the former's ally laid covered in blowing and dusty sand. This was the village of Sunagakure, which in the past couple of months which recently placed under new management since the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa Sabaku died in a border skirmish against Otogakure, and had his identity taken by Orochimaru.

The title of Kazekage was now held by his youngest son and the Jinchuriki of Shukaku, the one tailed raccoon. The baggy eyed redhead currently stood on the balcony to his palace deep in thought his newly found responsibilities, until the voice of his former teacher, Baki.

"Kazekage-sama, your meeting is about to begin."

"Got it."

The young ruler took the notification easily and entered the council chamber of Suna, where his siblings Temari and Kankuro Sabaku were waiting, along with the members of his council and a visitor to their village from Konohagakure, Shikamaru Nara who sat right next to Temari.

After a few more moments of preparation, a trusted veteran guard with a slight resemblance to the recently deceased Izumo Kamizuki, Yūra Sunashiro began the proceedings "Before we begin I'd like to thank Division 6 chunin, heir to the Nara clan, and Temari-hime's fiancé to Sunagakure."

_'Engaged? We only started seeing each other two months ago. For pete's sake Yūra-san, the whole point I asked him over was to make Otouto-sama NOT want to kill Shika-kun.'_

_'Since when are we engaged?! How troublesome.'_

"In the months since Gaara-sama has been crowned Kazekage, the alliance with Konoha as well as the strength of our village as a whole, has stabilized greatly. In particular the training program inspired by Konoha with some extra precautions to avoid favoritism. However there's a horrid rumor that's been roaming around as of late."

"And what would that be Yūra-senpai?"

"Apparently there's an organization called Akatsuki, that according to Jiraiya-dono, has been removing the biju from Jinchuriki, a process that also has the same affect on the respiratory system as inhaling 350 gallons of cigarette smoke. Except it's in only three days. Their first target for the Fourth Mizukage who was find buried in a shallow grave near Kusagakure, and reports have also been made of them targeting the Shichibukai, Roronoa Naruto during the Chunin Exams. This makes me feel worried for the safety of Godaime-sama."

It was by this point Baki stood up and pulled a bulletin board out from the other side of the room "They are composed of about 11 members, all S-Rank criminals, including former government agent Rob Lucci, Uchiha mass murderer, Itachi Uchiha, one of the Fishman Swordsman of Kiri, Kisame Hoshigaki. There are several other members, whom we currently have no information on."

"We have received an anonymous tip, that the Akatsuki will be attempting to assassinate Godaime-Sama tonight at 7pm, so I've made a circumference of security around our village, so that when two members reffered to only as Artist and Scorpion arrive, we shall be ready to defend the life of our Kazekage."

At this declaration the entire court broke out into cheer's before adjourning the order, which quickly dissipated as the gourds and councilmen changed out of their robes and went to their respective duties against the Akatsuki.

"I'm going to go change into my chunin gear and get ready for those Akatsuki creeps. In the meantime you can wait here with Kankuro and Gaara while I start the next episode I recorded. And don't you dare be later! Got that Shika-kun?" Temari asked her boyfriend, who responded through a quick nod.

Once he was absolutely sure that his older sister was completely out of earshot, Gaara leaned into the Nara's ear and whispered in a tone similar to his old bloodthirsty self "The only thing my shinobi better hear from the walls of my Neechan's room is her tv. Anything else and I send your Pineapple headed ass back to Konoha in the smallest packaging I can find. And I won't expect you back, without a diamond ring and a marriage proposal!"

With that warning made Gaara and Kankuro went onto the balcony leaving Shikamaru alone and scared shitless "What a drag. Guess what Otou-san said is true. The only thing you should fear more than the fury of a woman scorned is the fury of her siblings. Especially if one of those siblings happens to be the Kazekage."

* * *

Yūra walked through Sunagakure, appearing very tense to the point where it looked like he was under some sort of fuinjutsu which awakened memories of an organization and a master long passed. Indeed this was the truth of the matter judging by his thoughts which were spinning madly around his head _'At long last my master has returned. Sasori-sama, I will do your bidding and betray my village!'_

Just on schedule a hunched and crusty looking man walked to the village gate's all by himself, creeping over to the door as night fell. With a small knock the door creaked open, revealing all the guards in the sand's tan colored flak jacket lay dead on the ground while Yūra stood there covered in their blood.

"Good work Yūra, your hard work and loyalty will be a great help to our organization's cause." Scorpion praised his spy who merely nodded and kneeled, though he still looked incredibly shaken.

"Yes, Sasori-sama, I have long been awaiting for your triumphant return to Sunagakure."

Sasori walked into the busy marketplace of Suna, looking around to see what had changed and what hadn't in his old home. Unfortunately for him, part of the security detail was making sure that every villager knew if an Akatsuki chairman looked like, and if one of them were nearby. And his uniform fit that bill completely.

"Hey, it's one of those assassin guys!"

"They've come for Kazekage-sama!"

"Everybody run like hell!"

"Heheh. I love the sound of screaming and running like frightened little mice. I think it's time for Artist's work to be displayed." Sasori chuckled to himself while small white bugs crawled from what appeared to be grooves in his skin. The bugs scattered around the marketplace and detonated, blowing multiple structures nearby.

Noticing the chaos from down below in the village Kankuro told his younger brother of the situation from up on the balcony "Looks like the Akatsuki has decided to join the party. Hope they at least brought some sake."

"Now's not the time for your jokes. Go down there and supply aide to the ones trapped, and apprehend that Akatsuki." Gaara ordered his brother with the same tone he always had.

"Got it Kazekage-sama."

Kankuro jumped down into the unknown to start his own fight against the Akatsuki, Gaara noticed even more explosions around the village and even more screams, coming from a blonde man flying on a large white bird "Yes! You feeble minded fools will soon know what it means to become true art!"

"It's a good for my sanity I bet on the right horse. This maniac is turning this assassination attempt into some sort of circus." Gaara watched Deidera's attack in utter disbelief.

Very quickly this act of terrorism against Suna got very much on Gaara's nerves, as he attempted to gain the first blow by making a giant sand arm and stretched it out to hit Deidera

**"Sunaken"**

Despite being immersed in the explosions he was creating, Deidera easily sensed the attack long before it could impact.

**"Rocket Stinger"**

The bomber shoved a huge load of clay into to the artificial mouth on the palm of his hand, firing out a large white wasp which annihilated the arm of sand sent towards him. In response to this attack Deidera swooped down onto the balcony with a large grin and faced his target.

He only kneeled on the balcony for a brief moment, with a mocking smile before he jumped back up into the air, and remounted his bird. Gaara wasn't willing to let him get away that easily and sent another torrent of sand at Deidera.

**"Sunaken"**

Deidera cringed at the fist of sand which seemed to be following his every move from behind. He flew all around the village trying to shake it off, up and down, through roads and alleyways, though the attack pursued in persistence.

"This Jinchuriki is stubborn. If this keeps up I'll be the one turned into art. And that baggy eyed prick would make terrible art! At least it won't take much longer now." Deidera griped while staring at the mouth on his palm, as if anticipating something.

This turned out to be something he couldn't distracted by, as even more tendrils and fists came flying towards him, nearly knocking him off the clay bird several times. As a result he was forced to go higher and higher above Suna. All while Gaara leered at the blonde man in mid flight.

"You're pretty good gaki. Lord Pein was right, this gonna be a lot harder than #3."

Gaara kept his steely gaze, before he spread a large amount of sand out in front of him. He jumped up onto the sand, but instead of falling to the ground below he stood on the grains in midair, which moved him up higher and further away from the balcony now behind him.

"Really? We're both long range attackers so at least we'll know what to expect. I've fought two close range fighters in the past, both of whom managed to break through skintight armor of sand and take advantage of my physical weakness. As a result I've been training my body as well as the powers of my Biju. You however, probably haven't thought of that, so you'll be easy to snap like a twig if I get close enough, or maybe if you just screw up. And for the record, no birds look like that in the dessert, and the seriously need to see a barber. Or maybe you just like the okama look."

Deidera's arrogant smirk turned into an enraged scowl upon hearing the insult and fired more Rocket Stingers at the Kazekage, all of which were easily blocked by a wall of sand, much to Deidera's further annoyance "Damn it, this Jinchuriki's an even bigger pain in the ass than the Cinderface. I hope Sasori my man's having better luck than me."

* * *

A few minutes earlier, far down below the brawl between Gaara and Deidera, a large crowd of Suna chunin and jounin stood in a ring around a scorpion like man wearing a raggedy bandana for a mask. Despite the massive group of surrounding him, Sasori didn't seem to be afraid in the slightest.

"Let's see here…One…two…five…eight…eleven…twelve…fourteen…sixteen of you in total. Get ready, cause I'm about to show my everlasting art to you first hand. But currently it's a blank canvas, that I'll paint with your blood." Sasori began to shake violently for a few good moments, before something popped out of the center of his back. A turret gun, which spun around and fired rapidly, shooting down anyone who was near him.

Sasori covered up his mouth again, before hearing a noticeable thud from behind him. He turned around to see a scowling Kankuro unraveling the bandaged puppet on his back.

"Hold it right there. I never thought I'd ever meet the man himself. The puppeteer, Sasori Akasuna. I've been waiting for the chance to challenge you."

"I know you. Aren't you Rasa's gaki that wimped out during the chunin exams?" Sasori taunted the cat-headed puppeteer, much to annoyance.

"Hey I did that cause of strategy. Not my fault we decided against betraying Konoha after I surrendered. I totally would've beaten that bug freak if we had fought anyways!" Kankuro yelled with his face flushed red with anger.

"Whatever, I just need to keep you away from Gaara while he's fighting that freak on the weird white bird."

After that low and bitter grumble, Kankuro pulled three summoning scrolls from his black cloak and unraveled them all onto the sandy ground both puppet masters stood on.

"I've always respected you as a shinobi and puppeteer, you were an inspiration to this village. But now that you've joined a shitty organization like the Akatsuki, I've lost all respect for you. Get ready Akasuna-me, cause your about to see my puppet show!"

Kankuro pulled out a kunai from the pocket on his left leg and pricked his thumb just hard enough to draw blood, which he proceeded to press on each of the three scrolls. After he was done with that he put his hands into a tiger seal which caused the scrolls to burst into smoke.

**"Crow"**

**"Black Ant"**

**"Salamander"**

Once the smoke had cleared, three puppets stood in their place by Kankuro's side, all held to him with strings of chakra "If you think you're laying one hand on Otouto, you've got a whole 'nother thing coming!"

"So you weren't kidding about being a puppeteer. It's nice to meet a fellow artist that isn't completely annoying. Unfortunately those puppets aren't art."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Simple, art is something that's supposed to last indefinitely. And those puppets you have, aren't going going to last very much longer."

* * *

Around the same time the battle between puppet masters was going on down below, the battle in the sky with Deidera and Gaara still continued.

"Those strange looking mouths on your palms, there not like any jutsu I've seen." Gaara asked as he continued to attack the flying bomber with jolts of sand.

"I already told the Cinderface this before, but if you're wondering it's not even a jutsu. It's actually a devil fruit power. The Sculpt-Sculpt Fruit to be exact. But enough about me; let's kill you!"

_'Did he seriously just see that? How lame.'_

"Well getting in without a hitch failed thanks to the shinobi down there, but at least I know for certain where to get you though." Deidera said as he tightened the focus on his scope eye. He regretted this when he zoomed the glass back out and saw that a ginormous wave of sand was coming his way.

**"Quicksand Waterfall Flow"**

**"Explosive Clay Cannon"**

Deidera barely had enough time to blow a big enough hole in the wall of imminent death to fly through, before it caught and crushed him. With his escape made, he began flying closer and closer to the redheaded Kazekage. This turned out to more detrimental to him than less, as it gave Gaara a bigger opening for his next attack, in the form of a giant raccoon claw.

**"Slicing Sand Claw"**

"Seriously that name frickin' sucks!"

"It's better than the last name I had for it. Monstrous Sand Arm, or something like that. So glad Naruto-senpai convinced me to change it during our match."

Once that bit of banter was over, Deidera looked down onto his Devil Fruit hands with anticipation before the right one spat out a ball of clay " About damn time. It's a shame great art takes long to complete, yet it's gone in an instant."

_'Just how pretentious is this asshole?'_

Deidera than used his Devil Fruit power further to make his hands chew the claw into a group of smaller birds, which he proceeded to scatter down onto the Jinchuriki, while still avoiding the demon arm attempting to knock him from his steed to the sandy ground below.

"The real show's about to start numero uno. Are you ready"

**"Hummingbird Triad: Swiftful Seekers"**

_'Swiftful? Did this bakame just make up a word?'_

Gaara's irritation with Artist got even greater when his attack destroyed the arm of sand in one fell swoop, though he kept an expressionless demeanor. This stayed the same, even as more explosions occurred around him.

"There! You appreciate my art now Jinchuriki?"

"You are completely insane!" Gaara retorted while launching a multitude of shuriken and kunai at Deidera, all of which were either dodged or blown away.

"Those attacks won't affect me. You're getting more desperate as we fight, Kazekage. Maybe I should put you out of your misery!" Deidera mocked him for his weak attac, before turning around and realizing he had been led straight into another trap.

**"Slicing Sand Claw"**

With a new claw generated, Deidera was put back on defensive and barely able to avoid the claw reaching out for him. He stuck his hands back into the pouches of clay he kept hitched to his side, and let his Devil Fruit power take affect. Once the bomber was sure his attack was ready and stared down into his hands where two tiny geese lay. Once he threw them out of hands they puffed into smoke and grew in size, speeding up as well.

**"Rising Geese Call"**

They flew around the giant claw and headed straight for its controller, who sent more tendrils of sand out in attempt to catch them. Unfortunately they were simply to fast, and couldn't easily be blocked and exploded right on the one tails Jinchuriki. However when the ball of fire lost energy and extinguished, a giant ball of sand was revealed to covered Gaara from the blast. And though Deidera didn't notice, a small eyeball was orbiting it.

"Like an eggshell protecting its chick. What an eyesore; I have to destroy than blemish on the face of art." In his ravings, Deidera failed to notice a wall of sand coming from in behind. One that the sand claw had formed into.

_'Shit, how could I have forgotten that thing was still intact?'_

**"Sand Prison"**

* * *

Meanwhile Kankuro was having a very rough time against Sasori. At first he tried attack with Crow, but unfortunately Sasori wasn't code-named Scorpion for no reason and he caught the puppet in his tail before crushing it.

"Honestly, you haven't guessed this isn't even my real body yet? You're pathetic."

Kankuro was enraged by this, and attempted to attack him again after reforming Crow, only for the weapon to merely be swiped away once again. Now in an attempt to confuse his opponent he made Black Ant and Crow speed around him in a rapid circle. Sure he had disoriented Sasori, he began having Crow shoot weapons, but they were once again deflected.

"Your going to have try harder than that if you want to beat me!"

The Suna nin merely smiled and claimed "Believe me I already have. Didn't you notice one of the puppets I sent after you are missing?"

He pulled Black Ant's strings, causing him to pop from underground where Sasori was standing, sending him flying into the hair and into a vulnerable position. While Sasori was airborne, Black Ant opened up it's large chest compartment with intent to trap the Akatsuki chairman inside, leaving him open for a kill.

Once he was trapped inside Kankuro disassembled Crow, revealing sharp and pointy blades at the joints of his arms, legs, and neck, which flicked out command like the knife in a switchblade. Now all Kankuro had to do was raise up Black Ant, and sent the knives into the openings in Black Ant's chest chamber.

**"Puppet Theatre: MacBeth Iron Maiden"**

"The show's over Akatsuki-teme. Hope you enjoyed it." Kankuro gloated with a satisfied smirk on his face, sure that victory was his.

But to his surprise, instead of blood pouring from the slots, sand came out instead. Fearing the worst, he opened up the chest to take a peek what was inside. To his horror, he saw that what he killed was not Sasori, but in fact a sand clone. A large breaking noise came from behind, so he turned around to see Sasori rising from the sand dunes.

Irritated his attack somehow failed, he once again attacked his Crow puppet, using secret barrels in his arm to fire senbon needles at him, though as normal they were quickly deflected. An attempt at attacking from behind also failed, as the tail swept it away and smashed it to pieces. Finally he disassembled Crow again and launched the knives at it's joints towards the Scorpion like man, with similar results as previous.

_'How? How is he reading my movements like that? Is the difference between our power really that great?'_

"You finished yet Nyabaka? This is getting rather boring wouldn't you say?"

"Like Hell!"

Getting more and mor desperate, Kankuro tried the strategy of spinning Black Ant and Crow around him again, having Crow launch poison gas bombs at Sasori, before having both puppets open there arms up at the elbow, and launch dozens of senbon into the purple fog.

**"Poison Gas Inferno"**

**"Following Senbon Combo"**

Kankuro smirked, confident the attack had finally finished Sasori off. But when the gas cleared, Sasori stood there, still living and completely unaffected by the toxic gas. And what's more, every senbon needle had completely missed it's target.

"No…HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?"

"I'm sure your just as tired of waiting as I am. I think it's my turn to fight, don't you?"

Sasori went purely on the offensive, using his tail as a means of stabbing Kankuro. He was barely able to use Salamander as a shield to deflect the blow.

"Good luck getting through Salamander's iron wall. It's by far my strongest defense. You can't even hit as long as I have it nearby."

"Your correct about it's defensive properties. But no shield in this world is impenetrable."

The Scorpion proved his claims by launching out his stinger again, aiming right for the joints on the shield and sending it flying into the sky of Suna. Kankuro had leap out of the way to avoid getting impaled by the tail heading towards him. The next time however he had no time to dodge, and was launched into the air with the stinger through his chest.

Now that his fallen opponent lie writhing in agony from his poison on the ground Sasori shuffled off with only a few more words to say "It doesn't matter how strong the puppet is. If the master is a weakling then he all no matter what come the end."

_'Damn it. I lost…Forgive me Gaara.'_

* * *

Deidera flew around the spikes generated by the incoming jutsu, trying to epavoid capture inside. Though he was very fast, it still wasn't enough to escape, as he and his bird ran straight into the sand closing the gap between the jutsu and the outside, cause the sand to form around him and restrict all movements.

Just as bystanders watching from below thought that their leader had won the fight, the giant prison of sand holding Deideta had a large hole blown through it by one of Deidera's bombs giving him an opening to escape and resume his attack, by sending him flying right towards the ball of sand protecting Gaara.

The Kazekage saw this coming though and sent another wave of sand after him as he flew down, which grabbed him by the ankle and sent him flying right back into his prison. At the second though, Deidera threw out two wads of clay; one to act as a decoy for the prison of sand, and the other that turned into an owl, which he mounted to replace his one that was lost inside the prison.

Now the entire jutsu shaped itself into a way similar to a Venus flytrap and continued its pursuit of Deidera.

"That sand is such a pain in the ass. I need to finish to quickly before I run out of explosive clay."

Knowing for certain that the dogfight was nearing its end, Gaara opened up his shell to get a better of his enemy as he dodged. Because of this, Deidera had a lot of trouble consistently avoiding the torrents of sand Gaara sent him in rapid succession, before one finally managed to catch him by the arm.

**"Sand Funeral"**

Artist screamed in agony as the sand around his arm crushed it like a nut. He was even more annoyed when the chain of sand continued to grab onto him even as his arm was crushed, though his excited grin certainly didn't show it "Alright teme. You wanna be art, I'll be happy to oblige."

He placed a bomb of clay around his shoulder and ignited it, much to the shock of Gaara and those watching, completely blowing his arm off.

"Now I know that your Ultimate Defense sand has a fixed amount depending on how much normal sand you've consumed through your Jinchuriki powers. That hole in your shell is from the sand you used to grab my arm. This will be the key to your defeat!"

Deidea stuck his right hand into the pouch still containing clay and had it's mouth chew all of the remaining clay up into his final attack against Gaara. Once he was sure the attack was ready, he held the idol like bomb in his hand. Gaara instantly knew what he was going to use it for.

_'No! He's going to use it to destroy the village! I have to stop him some how!'_

_**'Why bother? These people ostracized you for your entire life, and they only start kissing your ass once you gain power. Their not worth it.'**_

_'…Your somewhat right Shukaku. There will always be people in Sunagakure I can never forgive. But there are still those precious to me here and if I let that bomb drop, I'll never be able to save them in time. But how can I stop this pretentious dro-Pretentious…windbag…That's it!"_

"What an ugly piece of crap you have in your hands." Gaara insulted Deidera as part of his plan. Naturally the Iwa missing nin was extremely infuriated at this.

"w…w…_What did you just say to me?_"

"That might just be the ugliest piece of shit I've seen in my entire existence. I hardly see how something like that could qualify as anything close to art. Only a truly pathetic and uninspired artist could have come up with something as bland, moronic, hideous, and downright ugly artwork as that."

By this point Deidera was practically twitching with pure unbridled rage towards the Jinchuriki. He kept repeating the same thing over and over again like a broken record until he finally exploded "How-how-how-how-how…HOW DARE YOU?! A FILTHY BEAST LIKE YOU WOULD NOTHING OF TRUE ART! ALL NIGHT LONG YOU'VE MADE ATTEMPTS AT MY LIFE WITH HIDEOUS, GAUDY ATTACKS! AND NOW YOU HAVE THE GALL TO INSULT MY ART?! THAT'S IT; FORGET BLOWING UP THIS DAMNED VILLAGE! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE I WANT TO TURN INTO ART TONIGHT!"

The enraged Akatsuki chairman sped towards Gaara on the owl at unimaginable speed, with his whitened from absolute fury. Holding the idol bomb like a baseball, he tossed the bomb into the gaping hole in Gaara's shell, causing it to explode on impact.

**"C3"**

"KAZEKAGE-SAMA!"

"That sure was a big pain in the ass. But at least we can finally get this tasteless dick to Lord Pein so we can remove his biju." Deidera thought aloud before turning his attention to his partner in crime down below who looked very shell shocked "Sasori my man, you mind picking up that Jinchuriki once he falls your way?"

"Deidera you fool. You should have dropped that bomb, but instead you've walked right into his trap!"

The bomber turned around and gaped in shock, to see Gaara stood on a small amount of sand armed with what appeared to a large red shield "You just dug your own grave, by blowing away every last bit of ammunition you had hidden in my sand through your arrogance."

"How are you still standing? That C3 bomb had enough power to blow away half this village!"

"I trust that you've faced Naruto-senpai before as he's told me, so naturally you've seen that he's sealed the Kyuubi into one his katana, Kurama. You should know I've done the same with this shield, Shukaku. Now this shield can withstand almost anything, and can certainly take a blow from puny so called art."

Deidera was once again infuriated by his insult and reached his pouches to activate his Devil Fruit power, but came face to face with a horrible truth. He was completely out of ammunition. Things only got worse when an even bigger sand trap close in around him from seemingly nowhere, and this time he had no way of escaping it.

"I figured there would more than likely be intruders that would breach the walls of our village, so I scattered my sand around it to mix with the sand of the dessert. That way I could easily expel any threats." Gaara told him before he got into a position like he was pitching a ball "No get the hell out of my village!"

In one solid movement, Gaara threw Deidera and his prison deep into the surrounding desserts, with his screams of rage and terror echoing throughout it, till he finally vanished from sight in a small twinkle of light.

With his battle finally over, Gaara looked down on Sasori who shushined away in a gust of sand, but not before threatening "Damn you One Tailed Gaki! Mark my words; you'll pay for humiliating us like this!"

"Happy that's over. If I wanted that much pretentious stupidity and explosions, I'd just watch a Michael Bay movie." Gaara sighed in relief as he descended towards his fallen brother and Baki "Find Captain Yūra and place him under arrest. Then transfer him to Konoha's Division for extensive interrogation under their Captain, Anko Umino. And make sure the guards guarding Neechan and Nara-San did their job. Or else they can join Yūra-me."

"Yes Kazekage-sama." Baki did as ordered and flashed away, leaving Gaara and Kankuro alone.

"That Scorpion guy really kicked my ass. If it wasn't for Chiyo-baasan I'd be dead right now. But it doesn't matter, I swear I'll beat him the next time we fight even if it costs me my life."

"We're going to need to do something about the Akatsuki before they try something else. Me and Naruto-senpai got lucky, but if they send someone like Itachi after us we're as good as dead. We'll have to try something with the other villages before we lose this battle."

* * *

**(A/N): I don't have much to talk about this time around so let's get this over with so I can post this chapter already. In news I'm finally done with the first half of my junior year in high school, so I'll probably have a bit more time to write before the second semester picks up. And speaking of picking up, need to work on the next Voodoo's Disciple before the next chapter of this one. Also, I might do a Bleach oneshot for Valentine's Day, so look out for that. I sure do have a lot on my plate don't I? How troublesome. Now that the two establishing chapters of the arc are finished, I can move onto the real plot. And since it'll be all about the Akatsuki, I'll be opening a poll of who your favorite Akatsuki member is (including the ones in this story that joined specifically here and simple agents of the Akatsuki like Ikō and Yūra count too)! Now that I've rambled enough I'm going to post this chapter so you can read it! **

**Till next time!**

**Next Chapter: ****Call to Action:The Formation of a Task Force?**

**. . .**


	23. Call to Action

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did Phoenix and Maya would be together.**

**Phoenix Wright: Objection! We are NOT together! And for that matter, that has nothing to do with either Naruto or One Piece.**

**Skillet: It will be canon in Ace Attorney 6! Mark my words damn it!**

**Pearl: Don't worry Mister Skillet, Mystic Maya does love him. She likes his butt and fancy hair.**

**Skillet: O_O**

**Phoenix: 0_0**

**Pearl:…I read it in her diary.**

**Phoenix: She thinks it's fancy?**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 21: Call to Action: The Formation of a Task Force?**

* * *

"You idiots! Imbeciles! How could you have failed so miserably on this task? Not only did you fail to capture the one tailed Jinchuriki, but you also had your identities revealed to the World Government. We're losing our anonymity because of this!" Pein angrily yelled at his previously defeated subordinates.

"I don't know what your yelling at me about Lord Pein. It was Artist who threw a hissy fit and screwed up the retrieval." Sasori pointed towards his sand covered partner, who was still very annoyed at the mention of his humiliating loss to Gaara three days ago.

"Sasori my man, what's with pinning all the blame on me? You could have easily gone after that Jinchuriki after he tossed my ass into the dessert."

"What's passed has passed. What's important is that you proved our old method is no longer relevant, so we will resume with the adjustments made by Genius." Pein explained to his irritated henchmen holograms.

"Thanks a lot you two bakas. Now we're all out of a job."

"Don't be rude. I'm sure they tried there best."

"Yeah, and they screwed it up and cost us our jobs. Honestly what would my mother say?"

"Stop arguing with yourself Jungle Rot; none of you will be leaving the Akatsuki. Me and Lady Angel still require your assistance for the new plan." Pein explained which calmed the worried chairman.

"And what would that be Boss?"

"Reaper, now that we've attempted another political assassination the shinobi villages on this continent will likely start pursuing us more heavily than ever, not to mention the World Government. I need you and Heartless to take a platoon to this location for a distraction. We'll be needing it for a concurrent attack."

"You'll hear no complaints from me Lord Pein. There's this old fart monk that has a high price on the black market near there. Think it'd be right up my alley." Kakazu said with a greedy grin on his face, though it couldn't be seen from under his mask.

"And what of the rest of us Pein-sama?" Itachi asked his old friend with a curious look in his sharingan eyes.

"Try to avoid being seen for now. This incident in Sunagakure has put our organization in a much greater risk than previous, so the World Government will likely put us as their top priority in the South Blue. Especially try to avoid Jinchuriki until our plan begins in earnest. Who knows which one's are plotting our downfall at this very moment."

* * *

"WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!I KNOW IT'S GOTTA BE HERE SOMEWHERE!" Naruto dug around his apartment in an angry stupor while Kurama watched with an irritated look on his face.

"I don't know what your freaking out over. It's just some stupid instant ramen and a bottle of sake."

"It's not just ramen or sake to me Kurama! How would you feel if that if someone took your tempura?" Naruto yelled at the biju before resuming his dig through the cluttered apartment. This continued until he found a small sticky note on his miniature fridge that he kept at the corner of the room.

_Took some of your ramen. Sorry but I knew this was the only I could get you to come to the hot springs with me. There's some people I'd like you to meet. Don't be surprised if I eat it all._

_-Jiraiya_

"So that old fart took my breakfast so he could get me to come peep on girls with him?" Naruto said with a very noticeable twitch in his eye.

"Don't be surprised. I just hope that he knows what he's gotten himself into, considering you've got Kushina-chan's blood running through your veins, so more than likely you have her temper. This could be very well be his death warrant." Kuruma said to himself as Naruto ran out the door fuming with rage…in the complete opposite direction of the onsen.

* * *

Meanwhile in said onsen, two men in their fifties started lustfully into the opposite bath, which likely contained beautiful women they could see. One of these men was the Toad Sennin of Mount Myōbuku and self proclaimed Super Pervert of Konoha, Jiraiya. The other man hadn't yet been seen inside Konoha's walls, and actually wore a Iwa hitai-te.

This man had red hair, which he tied into a flame like ponytail at the top of his head, with a red beard and mustache to go along with it. His forehead protector went on a three pointed headpiece with a gray strip of plastic that fit across the bridge of his nose. He wore a pale red robe with mesh armor covering a black shirt underneath, along with normal shinobi pants, sandals, gloves, and a breast plate around his waist. At them moment he appeared to be just as invested in the women's bath.

However there was another in bath, who simply enjoyed the bath instead of joking the two others in their peeking. The man was noticeably bulky, with spiky black hair which stuck out at the sides and thick black eyebrows. The oddest thing about the man was a monkey like tail he used to scrub his bare back.

"We should really come here more often Roshi-shishou. The bath's here are much more relaxing than the ones in Iwagakure!"

"Not now Goku we're busy. I hope that cute blonde one takes off that towel soon!" Roshi told the tailed man with a perverse giggle.

"Amen brother. It's been so long since I've been able to kick back and research. No Akatsuki, no Orochimaru, and no crazy, ramen loving, sake drinking, sword happy gaki's can interfere with my research!" Jiraiya said with naughty glee. Until Kurama walked through the curtains five seconds later.

"Hey ero-sennin. You probably already know this but Naruto's heading this way, and he's pretty pissed that you took his breakfast."

"WHAT! THAT GAKI'S COMING HERE RIGHT NOW?! THIS IS REALLY BAD, IF HE FINDS ME DOING MY RESEARCH, IT WON'T BE PRETTY!"

"Naruto? You mean the new Shichibukai, the one that holds the Kyuubi no Kitsune?" Roshi asked his terrified friend, not understanding the incoming danger.

"Yes, exactly. And he's also Kushina's gaki! His full name is Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto."

By this point, Roshi fully knew what he meant the moment he mentioned Kushina, and a flood of horrifying memories from the last time he came to Konoha came flooding through.

_"Dattebane! Are you pervs peeking on me and Mikoto-chan again? That's it I'm going to rip your balls off!"_

While the two middle aged men panicked, trying to find a way to escape without incurring the inheritor of the feared "Pervert Hunter Gene" Kurama noticed the other man in the bath, and smiled like he had just met an old friend "Hey wait a minute! Goku, is that you?"

"That's my name, The Yonbi Son Goku. I'm guessing from your chakra signature that your a biju like me. But I've never seen one with that human form before. Maybe your host died with you inside or something." Goku stood up from the bath and pondered Kurama's new form.

"Yeah that's exactly right. I was Ichigo Hatake before I died, but now I'm the current incarnation of the Kyuubi. Pretty sure I've met you before Goku."

"You died?! That's a real shame actually; I remember you being really cool when you were alive. You and your adorable team of gennin. How are they doing anyways, them and your otouto Kakashi."

Kurama looked in the other direction with a pained look on his face "I haven't seen any of them since I died eighteen years ago. Konan left the village and joined the Akatsuki after that incident, and I have no clue whether Nagato and Yahiko are alive or dead. And Kakashi is afraid of speaking to my current Jinchuriki cause of some past issues between them."

"How horrible. That would be like getting a thousand needles at once. I would rather be sick in my seal than get a needle."

"You haven't changed a bit have you Goku?" Kurama changed from his demeanor and extended his arm for a handshake, which Goku gladly returned.

The friendly mood was broken when Naruto burst end into the baths seething with rage, much to the fear of the two perverts in the corner.

"Alright Ero-sennin. You and I have got some shit to ta-_What the hell is going on here."_ Naruto stopped as his anger turned to confusion when he saw his tenant shaking hands with the bulky nude man standing in the bath. Despite this moment of befuddlement, Naruto quickly turned his attentions back to the sheepish Jiraiya.

"What's the big idea Ero-sennin? You stole my ramen, to get me to peek at women with you. Not all blondes are like that perverted cook you know!"

"Calm down Naruto. That's not what I meant when I said I wanted you to meet some pe-What are you taking about gaki, I don't peek! I happen to be a serious artist who has to has to research youth and beauty to achieve writing his masterpieces" Jiraiya defended himself, which failed to convince the irritated swordsman.

"What a load of crap. You so-called research is just an excuse to look at naked girls in the onsen!" Naruto yelled a little too loudly, resulting in a collective shriek and the sound of over a dozen running feet from the female side of the bath.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo_oooooooooooo! _Look at what you just did, you've ruined my peeping, I mean my research!"

"Pervy old fart."

"Why you little brat. I'll teach you to interfere with a man's research on the beauty of women! Goku, time for battle mode!" Roshi forgot why he was so afraid of Naruto in the first place and beckoned to his biju.

Son Goku merely sighed and began glowing with light before changing into a red-orange war hammer, which Roshi grabbed into his arms with an angry expression on his face. As Naruto expected the Yonbi Jinchuriki charged at him with a swing of Son Goku, so he avoided the attack with a simple sidestep.

Roshi just as easily recovered from the failed attack and proceeded to charge again. Naruto brandished his own now transformed demon weapon in preparation for the assault and got ready to swing down on the hammer when it came close enough to attack. Unfortunately neither of the men knew the massive recoil from two demon weapons striking each other, and both were sent flying upwards into opposite directions.

After a few moments of heated and wet darkness, Naruto broke through the surface of the water to catch his breath. He was very confused as to what happened for a moment, before seeing a sole nude women in the bath, though her body was covered by the water. That's when he realized that Roshi had knocked him into the other side of the bathhouse.

"Crap I've gotta get out of here! I can't let anyone see me like this!"

"Don't worry I know you weren't peeking. You're just lucky Jiraiya-me scared all the other women out; I don't think they'd be as understanding." The women explained to the very red faced swordsman. Like many people Naruto knew she had an abnormal hair color, that being a dark purple which reached to her back. Her irises were also peculiar, being a cat like yellow.

"Oh how rude of me. I never thought to tell you my name. My name's Matatabi, and yours?"

"Umm Naruto…Roronoa Naruto." Naruto said, still flushed with embarresed at the situation at hand. This only got worse when Matatabi stood up from the bath, revealing herself to Naruto unknowingly, who was now suffering a slight nosebleed and looking away immediately still as red as a beet.

"But I suppose I already knew that. I don't know that many people on this continent who don't know who you are. So it's only fair that you know that I'm the Nibi."

"WOULD YOU PUT A DAMN TOWEL ON ALREADY?!"

"Oh I'm sorry. I was so immersed in our conversation that I completely forgot that we were opposite genders." The purple haired biju said as she reached for the towel nearby and wrapped it around her tan body "But to frank I'm quite surprised. You're more innocent and naïve than I thought. At eighteen years old, was that really the first time you've seen a naked woman before? Would you like another look? Life is short so you may not get another chance to see a hot you-"

"What is going on here?"

Both Naruto and Matatabi turned their heads to another women standing over at the enterance to the women's bath. Like Matatabi she was extremely beautiful with long back length scarlet hair and brown eyes, but was some reason wearing noticeable armor with a crossed heart over the left breast, and a blue skirt along with the armor.

"Alright you blonde pervert. I'll give you five seconds to explain what your doing in our bath and I better like your answer."

Naruto wasn't intimidated and reached for Yamakawa-o, but was interrupted when Matatabi moved in front of him and explained the situation "Don't worry Kokuō-chin. He wasn't peeping on us or anything; He just got knocked over into this bath by Roshi-me. He's actually the Jinchuriki for Kurama-pyon."

**_"I thought I told you never to call me that Matatabi!"_**

"But I thought I was your girl Kurama-pyon. Play your cards right and we can see each other like we did back when you were alive." Matatabi said flirtatiously towards the katana who even in his current form seemed very flustered with it.

"I see. I apologize for my previous accusations. My name is Kokuō the Five Tailed Sheep, and your Roronoa Naruto correct?" The red haired biju asked, to which Naruto responded with a hesitant nod. Kokuō then grew a glare pointed towards the men's bath "I assume it was those lechs Roshi-me and Jiraiya-me that got you stuck here. Don't worry, I'll make sure you can get back to the other bath with no trouble. Han, I need your help over here!"

A few moments after she called, a very tall man with yellow eyes and heavy red armor wearing an Iwa hitai-te came through the entrance of the women's bath. He immediately walked up to Kokuō and asked her "Alright Kokuō what do you need me to do."

_'Did that guy just walk into the women's bath like it was anywhere else.'_

"This child is the Jinchuriki of Kyuubi, and he accidentally ended up on this side of the bath thanks to Roshi-me. I need you to get him onto the other side. Remember that Jinchuriki aren't treated nearly as well as they are in Iwagakure, so if he's caught thing might get dire."

"I don't know about that Kokuō. You haven't smiled once today, and I can't function without my smile." Han huffed to his biju while glaring in the other direction.

Kokuō gave out and irritated smile to satisfy Han and growled "There I smiled, now get to work before Roronoa-san gets lynched!"

"Keep your skirt on Kokuō, I'm making some progress here." Han said as he picked up the swordsman and curled him into a little ball "I'd recommend holding yourself in this position untill you hit the water on the other side."

"But what if I don't hit the water?"

"Not my problem."

Han then threw the now screaming swordsman up into the air and over the wall in a sharp line at unimaginable speeds. Surprisingly Naruto started to descend one he was over the blocking screen and landed into the men's bath water, where Jiraiya watched as Roshi finally managed to pry himself and Son Goku out of the roof Naruto had sent him flying into minutes before.

"You're back already gaki? Were any girls still there? Were they hot?" Jiraiya continued to press the submerged Naruto, which irritated him even more.

"I swear I'm gonna drown you for this Ero-sennin."

* * *

"Good night Kakashi-sensei. Have a symmetrical day." Zhên called to his subsitute teacher as he walked off with his fan club following him like a pack of wolves.

"It feels nice having been able to teach again. Zhên may be rather fussy, but at least he's definitely less full of himself than Sasuke." Kakashi pondered to himself before collapsing on a nearby bench with a sigh "I hope I've been improving as a teacher that's for sure. I'm still not sure if Naruto or Ichigo-Niisan will ever forgive me for how I ran my-"

Kakashi was cut off from his thoughts when a hard and chakra enfised fist slammed across his masked face, and sent him flying off his seat. Once he regained orientation he turned his head to see just who socked him across the face, to see a grinning Asuma and Kurenai standing next to him.

"Sorry about that. After the Wave Mission briefing I punched you, but after hearing the news I couldn't tell whether it was you Fū I punched. So I had to slug you again."

"That was actually me back then. Danzō didn't actually capture me and replace me with his saruwarano until after I began looking for Naruto in Kiri. I give Fū credit though, he was better at finding him then I was."

"Damn it Asuma-kun, if you're going to punch some 50/50 chance at least let them explain themselves." Kurenai playfully smacked her secret lover over the head, before approaching Kakashi to pull him up.

Now it was no secret that Kurenai was one of the most beautiful of Konoha's Kunoichis, with her silk-like black hair, rose red lips, fair skin, and an amazing figure. So naturally Kakashi was extremely flustered by being so close to her _'Damnit she's even hotter up close. No, bad Kakashi. She's with Asuma, she's with Asuma. Change the subject before one of them notices.'_

"So what are you two doing here on such a fine evening. On a date perhaps?" Kakashi made a cheeky remark, ignoring the blush that was almost visible through his mask.

While this comment shocked Asuma to the point he bit through the cigarette he was smoking, Kurenai was merely irritated with the masked jounin "Mind your own business Kakashi!"

"Relax Kurenai-san. After being kidnapped, imprisoned, and impersonated for the past 5 or 6 years, can't a guy ave a little bit of fun once in a while." Kakashi said before collapsing onto the bench he had been knocked off of a few minutes ago, while Asuma sat down next to him, lighting another cigarette to replace the one he'd bitten through.

"You should really break that filthy habit of your's Asuma. Those things will kill you ya know."

"Please Kakashi, I'm a shinobi! If I die from anything it won't be from these disgusting things. But back on the topic of that Santatsu Foundation, have you gotten that teme Danzō rotting in Impel Down yet?" Asuma asked curiously to the now sullen looking Kakashi.

"It was no good. I tried harder and harder to get an arrest warrant for that jackass, but nothing I did was good enough. You probably already know this being the son of the Hokage, but the Judicial System of this village is very unbalanced. Until trial begins, witness testimony is unacceptable as evidence, and physical evidence is required to actually start a trial. But Danzō erased any evidence of his involvement with Orochimaru or the Akatsuki when he wiped away the Kûmèn Temple. So for now, it's impossible to bring him in."

"Unbelievable, so even after everything Danzō-me's done it's still impossible to touch him at all?" Kurenai asked angrily.

"Sounds a lot like some movie I saw once. Something called Lethal Weapon 2. And if there's one thing I've learned from that movie, it's that shooting him in the face is always the best course of action for illegal diplomatic immunity." Asuma joked with a big goofy grin on his bearded face. The grin faded when he realized Kakashi seemed to think it wasn't a bad idea.

"Well anyways, I've got to head out soon. You probably already know this but Otou-sama is mixing Divisions 2,5,6,9, and 11 to form a task force against the Akatsuki, and I'm leading a team where the ones code-named Heartless and Reaper were spotted. I'm surprised your not coming along with Kurenai-chan, I mean you are my lieutenant and all."

"I already told you Asuma-kun, I need to get my team back up to practice soon since Kiba and Akamaru should be off leave later today, so I want to get Hinata and Shino promoted too. But we can talk plenty later." Kurenai began walking off in the direction of the Hyuga Clan compound with Kakashi and Asuma watching.

"You and Naruto are lucky, lucky men. After the whole thing with Naruto I doubt any women would ever go near me. Maybe I should just adopt a bunch of cats." Kakashi said with a sigh.

"Don't say that man. I'll tell you what, once I get back from the task force mission you, me, and every other bachelor besides you in the Shinobi Corps are heading to Shukuba Town for five straight days of cold liquor, hot onsen, and hotter women. For you anyways, not so much for me."

"I look forward to it. Now if you excuse me I need to grade some tests for Iruka-san. And for the record, your punch doesn't even compare to what Iruka did to me after I let Naruto run away like that."

* * *

Back in another part of Konohagakure, a still sopping wet Naruto walked next to Kuruma on their way to Inuzuka compound. The latter of the pair was barely capable of holding in their laughter from what happened at the onsen "It's not that damn funny Kuruma-teme!"

"Oh come on man. Thrown between two onsen at once! You just can't write comedy like that!" Kurama laughed at his warden, before a leg tripped him and sent him right into a puddle.

"Is it funny now?" Naruto asked Kuruma with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Not cool man! Do you have any idea how much it costs me to get this suit washed…nothing, because I have a washer inside my seal…But it's still a pain in the ass to wash it all! Not to mention these are the only clothes I actually have. So now thanks to your ass I have to walk around my seal completely naked."

"Sorry, but you just can't write comedy like that!"

With this Kuruma went back to his sword form to go and wash his suit, muttering disgruntled obscenities at the Jinchuriki from under his breath "Yeah that's what I thought you nine tailed-teme."

"My eternal rival. I see your flames of youth have not diminished since we last met!" Upon hearing the enthusiastic familiar voice, Naruto turned around to see the members of Team Gai were standing behind him. Like Kiba had a week and a half ago, Lee and Neji had taken separate promotion missions from the Exams once their respective injuries had healed and we're now chunin.

Tenten however, was still a gennin "Hey there Naruto-senpai. What you walking around the village for?"

"I was just going to go visit Kiba since his leave of absence ends today, and I wanted to see if the guy was actually in any mental state to work after…what happened."

"How sad! The tragedy of what happened to that young girl is weakening my flames of youth just thinking about what happened to that poor girl." Lee said with typical anime style tears rolling down his face. While this would normally an amusing sight to Naruto, thinking about what occurred upon his return put a painful pit in the swordsman's stomach. And thinking of the man behind it all only made him feel worse.

"Naruto-sama, you appear to be incredibly distressed by the events prior. I hate seeing you in such a saddened state. Would you like me to get you something to cal your nerves." Neji asked the now very confused Naruto. After the Chunin Exam Finals, Neji began his attempt at becoming a nicer and more loose person. While he behaved like any other person around most others, he still followed his proclaimed debt to Naruto and Hinata very strictly.

"No it's fine. But you guys can come with me if you'd like."

"Of course, I've always wanted to see the Inuzuka compound. Tsume-sama and Hana-senpai are some of my idols as kunoichi. The only ones who surpass them as warriors are Tsunade-sama and Zoro-senpai." Tenten said with a blush.

For some reason Neji seemed to get irritated and growled "We can talk about the great warriors of the world later Tenten-san. Right now we should avoid burning daylight and get to the Inuzuka compound as quickly as possible.

_'Was that jealousy there?' _Naruto and Lee thought concurrently.

It took them about five more minutes to get to the Inuzuka clan compound with the increase in group number. Since the Inuzuka clan was a secondary clan of the village, it's compound was much smaller than other clan compounds such as the Hyuuga. When they made it to the front door the one who greeted them at first was the clan head, Tsume Inuzuka.

"Hey there pups. What are you doing here so early in the morning." Tsume asked, as she wasn't very used to getting visitors. Her question was answered when she noticed the blonde swordsman on the right "Naruto? I've heard a lot of you from Anko-chan. My son should be off leave soon, as should Isaribi-chan."

"...Wait a minute Isaribi?" Naruto asked with a shocked expression, remembering her as the ex-lieutenant of Shou Tucker.

"Yeah, Kiba invited her into our compound until she found a place to stay in the village. To be perfectly honest, I was surprised as you are. My son may put on a confident facade with the ladies but he's got as much, how do you kids say it "'tude" with women as a sea sponge."

**_"Did she just say 'tude? That wasn't even cool back when I was alive!"_**

"We also have another visitor who's an old friend of Hana's from Kiri. He's a bit lazy but he's got one of the most interesting weapons I've seen in awhile. I bet you'd be pretty interested in it actually Tenten-chan." Tsume mentioned with a smirk on her face, knowing it would rile Tenten up. She was correct as Tenten ran down the hallway she was pointing down with a squeal at the thought of the new weapon.

"I should probably go to Naruto-sama. You're probably aware of how excited Tenten can get around weapons, and its no secret that after the Chunin Exams Kiba isn't exactly fond of me."

"I will go with them! I must never leave my teammates behind." Lee ran down the hallway as excitedly as Tenten after his teammates.

Now that Team Gai was off on their own business, that left no obstacles for Naruto to see how Kiba was rising from his depression. Of course being a swordsman, Naruto would be lying if he said he wasn't extremely curious about this Kiri stranger and his mysterious weapon. But that would be something for later, as he currently had bigger fish to fry.

But on the way over to Kiba's room, he ran into a very discreet looking Isaribi. Or more appropriately, bumped into her "Oh sorry about that Isaribi. Did you need to talk to Kiba too?

"NO! Why would I need to go visit Kiba you big idiot. I just almost went into the wrong room is all!" Isaribi defended before moving off in a huff.

Once he was sure Isaribi was out of earshot Naruto chuckled to himself, as he was no fool and knew exactly what she was up to despite her objections. However what Naruto didn't know what to expect was what to see when he opened the door to Kiba's room. Kiba laying on the ground like a mermaid, with a rose in his mouth and a sly look on his face.

"Well helloooooo Is-*CHOMP*" Kiba's words came to a halt and he completely swallowed the thorny flower once he saw that it was Naruto standing in the doorway "Ummm Naruto! Yes why would I be expecting anyone different! *cough* So what's up with you?"

"Aside from needing to wash my eyes in boiling water and soap, I wanted to see how you were doing after...the mission a few weeks ago." With that the room was put into another awkward silence less comedic than the last.

This continued until Kiba finally spoke up again in a voice filled with anger "I can't believe we let that four-eyed bastard escape. I won't be able to really consider myself a chunin until I can catch him and bring him to justice for Nina and Izumo."

"About that. Earlier today I received some files from the interrogation of an Akatsuki spy stationed in Suna that was involved in the attempted assassination of Gaara earlier this week. From the information Anko-senpai got out of him, Shou Tucker's allied himself with the Akatsuki for some project. Unfortunately that was all we could get from the guy since Pein-niiteme is so secretive, only the chairman no anything about the project."

"The Akatsuki? Don't they have that crazy fast leopard guy with them? How do you know that guy anyways?" Kiba asked of Naruto's adventures on the Grand Line. Naruto was about to respond, but a metallic grinding came from the other room which caught his attention.

"What's that noise? Could it that peculiar weapon they were talking about earlier...peculiar...weapon...AW DAMNIT NOT ANOTHER ONE!" Naruto screamed in frustration before running down the hallways.

"Hey Naruto, where are you going? The noise is coming from the other hallway!"

About ten minutes later Naruto finally managed to find the room where the noise was coming from and ran in to make sure his theory was correct. Sure enough he found a man with a large revved red chainsaw, which Tenten was admiring like Chouji would a t-bone steak. The man had pale yellow eyes and long dark brown hair that reached his neck. He wore gray pants under his light blue kimono tied up by an orange sash, but the most striking feature about the man was the bubble pipe he kept clenched in his teeth.

"Alright gaki. What's the big idea with running around like that after a meal. Unless my soul is in the demon weapon you made, you running after a meal is like a nauseous roller coaster ride." Kuruma yelled at Naruto while changing into his human form, who seemed only interested in the stranger before them.

"Well hello there Roronoa, I was wondering when you would arrive. My name is Utakata Yababaru, former missing nin of Kirigakure. I believe you've were acquainted with my late sensei Zabuza Momoichi. I believe that will make us great partners in the upcoming battles." Utakata greeted Naruto while setting down his chainsaw blade first, which than began to glow "And just in case you're wondering I am a jinchuriki; of the Rokubi to be exact."

"...Wait a minute...Roku...bi...Oh No...NO. NOT YOU ANYBODY BUT YOU!" Kuruma began to scream in fear when he realized who was coming from the chainsaw.

"Oh how cold Kuru-chan. It's so sexy how cold you treat me. And your current body is even more dashing than the last you know!" An effeminate voice came from the chainsaw, though the tone of the voice clearly came from a male body. The one coming from the weapon needless to say, was very very red. Their victorian style outfit was red, their secretary-like glasses were red, their long hair was he'd. The only thing wasn't red about them was their pale skin, green eyes, and sharp, pointy teeth. The other most notable thing about them was their completely androgynous appearance.

"You've gotta be kidding me. First I was in heaven with Matatabi but now I'm in hell with you Saiken. This is so bad, this is really really bad!"

"Oh Kuru-chan your fearful nature only makes me even more attractive. I must have you!"

This sight was very odd to most of the bystanders watching most notably Tenten and Naruto "I think I liked him better when it was a chainsaw and not a pervert. I didn't even know a girl could be a pervert till now."

"That thing's a girl? I honestly couldn't tell...Maybe he's part of that Newkama movement starting in that one island in the Grand Line." Neji suggested in equal shock at the promiscuous biju before them.

* * *

"I'm still surprised you took us all out for ramen like this Naruto. Aren't you practically broke?" Kiba asked Naruto who was currently drinking the sake that came with his order of pork miso ramen.

"Don't question it Kiba, just eat. Consider it a celebration for your first day off leave and don't tell Chouji I took you guys here without telling him." Naruto rebuffed his question before preparing to dig into his bowl of ramen.

"I thank you greatly for your generosity Naruto-sama. I am once again in your debt." Neji thanked his fellow chunin before traditionally claiming "Itadakimasu!"

"Indeed, Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu!"

Upon each of them completing the gesture, they all began quickly eating the bowl though some did it faster than others. And though none of them noticed, a pair of angry onyx eyes was watching from a short distance away that seemed to focus in on one of them in particular.

"Kiba, chew your food instead of slurping it down and swallowing it whole like a pig!"

"What are you talking about, it's completely socially to slurp your food Neji. Besides its not like it's the last time I'm eating here or anything."

"Maybe if you had manners you'd actually have a girlfriend."

"Hey! Me and Isaribi-chan are totally going at it. Not like it's my fault it took me this long to get a girl with pretty boys like your lieutenant hogging all of 'em. All the girls think that Tokuhei is so amazingly sexy!"

"…Well I'm certain that his boyfriend thinks that Tokuhei's amazingly sexy.

"AH"

Naruto chuckled at the exchange between the two, before the conversation was interrupted by a familiar face. A familiar face that disdained. The face of Sasuke Uchiha "You guys talking about fags? Not surprised you talk about your daily activities in public like that. Guess shitstains have nothing better to do than that."

"Well aren't you politically correct teme. Where's your fan club, or did they finally realize your dick wasn't big enough to measure with a blade of grass?" Kiba stood up from his seat and vulgarly retorted to the insult.

"I have better things to do then deal with your trashy clan Inuzuka, like take what's mine from even greater scum. Why don't you go look for your bum of a father, who probably left you and your ugly bitch of a mother for a much sexier women. Kind of like that hot ass teammate of yours."

"_Why you-"_

"Now there dobe, let's get down to what I really want from this. I am your superior and you are a clanless orphan piece of of shit. As your higher being I demand that you surrender all your katana, jutsu, and most importantly your bitch to me!" Sasuke ordered Naruto, who was currently seething with rage. This wasn't helped when for good measure Sasuke smashed both his bottle of sake and bowl of ramen off onto the floor.

"How dare you disgrace Naruto-sama like this you arrogant blow hard!"

But surprisingly Naruto calmed himself down and face palmed instead as he stated at the mess "Oh great, now there's a huge mess in front of the restaurant. Sorry 'bout that Teuchi-San."

"You feel so bad about it Dobe? Than maybe you should clean it too! That's all your kind is good for anyways; cleaning up the waste of the elite like me! And just for the record, I felt up that Hyuuga bitch while you were out a few weeks back. She jūkened me in the balls, but it doesn't matter. I'll take her by force if I have t-"

In his arrogant gloating when Naruto hit him in the face as hard as he possibly could, giving him no time to even activate his Devil Fruit power and avoid. When he looked up he saw that Naruto had very well delved straight into Breaking Blade as a result of his words "You…did that to…Hinata-chan?"

"Neji-san, should we assist Naruto on his youthful endeavor of regaining Hinata's honor?"

"As much as I would like to neuter the Uchiha for what his cowardly act against Hinata-sama while Naruto-sama was absent, this is Naruto-sama's fight alone. He probably won't appreciate us interfering."

When he realized his teammate was correct, Lee nodded and muttered to himself "It's a very good thing I chose Naruto to be my eternal rival instead of Sasuke. I can't believe his mental health could of deteriorated this much in the span in six years. Could it have something to do with Danzō?"

"You want to fight me so badly Sasuke-teme? Well then get ready, cause I'm going to dissect you like a rat." Naruto growled while removing the steaming blade of Kuruma from its sheath. Sasuke smiled as he knew he got the reaction he wanted, and began to prepare his defense. That is until a strange beat filled the air, and a rap began to start from nowhere.

_Yo! Say! Ho!_

_Know my name, Know my fame!_

_Don't be lame!_

_Hatchibi, that's me!_

_Da rappin' Killer Bee!_

_A biju resides inside my hide!_

_Makin' beats and rhymes and I'm makin' em live_

_It's what a Jinchuriki needs to survive!_

_Battle after battle up here in the Bee Hive!_

As if the confrontation had never happened, everybody looked in the direction of the rapping to see a very bulky man in about his late 30s with dark skin and slicked back white hair with a goatee. He wore a Kumo hitai-te with a white scarf, white gloves and white flak jacket with baggy gray pants held up by a red rope sash, and multiple swords strapped to his back. A oval shaped pair of sunglasses also covered his eyes.

_Came here for a fight, and dontcha know!_

_My opponent of choice is Roronoa Naruto!_

_His three katana are a major component!_

_Right from the start, he's a worthy opponent!_

_But the notion of a victory is not contradictory!_

This set of rhymes got Naruto's attention, as he retreated out of Breaking Blade with an excited grin. He then walked away from the now angered Sasuke and approached the rapping challenger _'Who the hell does this rapping idiot think he is, interrupting my victory!'_

_Win after win is the way that it's done!_

_When I'm through, you'll wish we'd never met son!_

"So from what I could gather in that rap of yours, you're the Jinchuriki of the Hatchibi and you want to fight me. Is that right?" Naruto asked the older man, who was going to respond with another rap before being interrupted.

"Wait a minute. I refuse to let a loser accept your challenge! I am an elite, so I will fight you instead. And when I defeat you, I will take both your swords!"

_Buzz off Uchiha!_

_I don't even want to see ya!_

_Didn't you get your ass kicked by the Kazekage?_

_A Jinchuriki could beat you any day!_

The comment easily enraged Sasuke to the point he directly attempted an attack on Killer Bee with a golden fist, though B blocked it with one of the swords he had hitched to his back, before unhitching another with his mouth and using it to jab into Sasuke's golden hand and electrify it with lightning chakra.

**"Acrobat"**

Once Sasuke was knocked back by the electricity B prepared to sheath his sword but found himself on another attack from Naruto, who was now using Nitoryu "Shouldn't have let your guard down Bee. We are in the middle of a fight you know?"

"Guess your right about that Cinderface. My bad!"

"Tell me, judging by the amount of swords you have hitched to your back, I'd say you practice the Hachitoryu technique. That style is an incredibly hard to master unless you're some sort of fishman; I have to say I'm impressed!"

"Sorry but you're wrong about the style I use with my swords, though I did take inspiration from that specific sword attack. The way of attacking with my Super-Vibration Lightning Swords is my own personal way of fighting I call Disturbance." B explained his younger opponent while demonstrating the technique while defending against Naruto's attack, by switching all of his eight swords between his arms, mouth, or even his armpits and the folds of his legs and elbows. Each deflection he contorted his body and maneuvered the swords around through the air.

"But that's not all my swords can do..."

**"Ink Spilling"**

Much to the surprise of those watching, a large torrent of black ink spewed from the tips of his swords, which caught Naruto completely off guard. While he was able to avoid some of the waves of ink coming toward him, the fact that there were eight lines coming towards him simultaneously meant he had to get at least 3 or 4 of them. Unfortunately for him one of the places where he got hit were in his eyes. However one thing Naruto was fully on guard for was Sasuke trying to grab the currently sheathed Kuruma.

"I didn't think you'd tell I was about to do that with your eyes inked shut like that. But even so dobe, your still better off just letting go before I cook you li-" Sasuke was cut off from his gloating and severely loosened his grip on Kuruma when the remaining ink on Naruto shot out into needles and impaled him, though thanks to his Devil Fruit power. What he couldn't easily recover from though was when Naruto retaliated by unsheathing Kuruma and counter-attacking.

**"Iai: Baki"**

Naruto then turned around and attacked Killer B again, who quickly guarded with one of his Super-Vibration swords "That's weird; I thought I had my ink seal your eyes shut, but here you are acting like you've got eyes in the back of your head."

"I have a lot of experience fighting blind. Where'd you think I got the epithet "Cinderface"?"

Sasuke stood up from the wound in his chest and stared at the Jinchuriki with all the hatred he had in his body, as his cursed seal spread across his scowling and he prepared a tiger seal "How dare you filthy demon freaks ignore me like this! I am an Uchiha and I will take your weapons for my own!"

**"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu"**

**"Ink Spilling"**

With both B and Naruto's attentions fixated on the mentally unstable gennin, the former shot out another torrent of ink from his mouth before using his powers to stretch it out into a square shaped shield. Naruto merely pointed out his own demon weapon out in the direction of the incoming flame and waited until it nullified and absorbed the attack.

Sasuke took this failure well "DAMN IT! MARK MY WORDS DOBE, I WILL GET THAT SWORD OF YOURS EVENTUALLY DOBE! AND WHEN I DO YOU'LL BE NOTHING MORE THAN A PATHETIC LITTLE WEAKLING AGAIN."

"Is that seriously all you where going to say? I swear your motivations are so typical you could be the villain in a child's comic book ore something." Naruto taunted his rival again, before an audible thud came from the other end of B's ink shield which grabbed the attention of both of them.

After a few moments the shield dissipated into a puddle of ink on the ground, revealing an unconscious Killer Bee and an embarrassed, chain wielding woman nearby. The women kept her straight blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, and wore a Kumo headband with a purple and black blouse and fingerless gloves, along with green and white sweatpants tied up with a red sash.

"I'm so sorry B, I really didn't mean to knock you out like that! I swear I only meant to grab you by the ankle but you crouched down at the last second! Raikage-sama is going to be pissed." Yugito worried before noticing the other the group of Konoha shinbone watching with confused looks on their faces "You two are Roronoa Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha right?

"Those are us too. But what could you possibly want us together for, Team 7 was disbanded 2 months ago!"

* * *

"We're confining the Jinchuriki." A said from his position at the Five Kage Meeting Hall.

"Um Raikage can you explain that in more detail to those of us that don't feel like getting a dictionary and looking up what the word confining means?" Utakata droned before blowing another bubble from his pipe, and taking a bite from the bar of soap he kept on hand.

"The youth of today so uneducated, honestly! Why can't your Jinchuriki be more like Han or Roshi, huh Mei-sama?" Onoki asked the Mizukage directly opposite from him.

She merely giggled before glaring at Tsuchikage while still keeping the sweet tone "Are you calling me a christmas cake Tsuchikage-sama? I'm not sure I appreciate that."

_"This woman's even scarier then Nami..."_

"What Raikage-sama is saying is that after the recent incidents with the Akatsuki invading both Konoha and Suna and trying to kill their respective Jinchuriki, the Daimyos met and agreed that it would be the best decision to group all of our Jinchuriki together and move them to a separate location while a task force developed by Konoha's Gotei 13 will terminate members of the Akatsuki as they make themselves known."

A then continued where Sarutobi left off "Each Jinchuriki will be allowed one bodyguard to make the trip with them. The sole exception to this rule is Kazekage-sama, who has been allowed two bodyguards due to his rank."

"I told you just one bodyguard is fine. I don't want to be given special treatment just because of my rank."

"Honestly, the youth of today is annoyingly stubborn. Think of what might happen to your village if you are captured and die like that. With no heir for the title of Kazekage, it would be madness."

"Excuse me Tsuchikage-sama, but I don't think the two bodyguards thing will matter anymore. Chiyo-sama might have kicked the bucket." Temari said carefully as she approached the body, which popped up and frightened the girl a few moments later.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I really fooled you didn't I?" Chiyo howled with laughter, not expecting to be hit over the head with a fan.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack you old hag!"

Ignoring the scene in the corner between his bodyguards, Gaara used his powers to pass out forms to each person in the group "For those of you who don't know, these will be the teams for the Jinchuriki and their bodyguards."

When Naruto laid eyes on his portion of the paper, he groaned "You've gotta be kidding me!"

_Gaara Sabaku: Chiyo Akasuna &amp; Temari Sabaku_

_Yugito Nii: Karui Nakano_

_Roshi Kijibato: Akatscuhi Oshiro_

_Han Kyousa: Kurotsuchi Hokori_

_Utakata Hikina: Chojūro Terumi_

_Fuu Takino: Shibuki Tachibana_

_Killer B: Darui Kyandhi_

_Roronoa Naruto: Sasuke Uchiha_

"Now that you've all looked over them, does anyone have questions about its content."

"I have a question about the mission itself. If we're wandering in a pack, won't that make us sitting ducks if any Akatsuki agent comes by." Han asked while scratching the headpiece of his armor.

"That's why were your traveling in a pack Han. Its a well known fact Akatsuki agents attack in pairs, so unless they've overhauled their system then a group of this size should easily overwhelm the team. Any of you other gakis have a question?"

"I sure do, and it's directed right to you Jiisama. It should be pretty obvious by now me and Sasuke-teme get along about as well as cats and dogs. So why did you put him in charge of my life instead of someone like Neji or Shikamaru?"

"Believe me Naruto I side with you on this one. But the Civilian Council went over my head and made Sasuke your bodyguard. Why they did this I don't understand in the slightest. But we'll just have to deal with it for know." Sarutobi said with a frown before standing up and exclaiming "Now if there are no more questions, you will head to location given to you affective immediatley."

Just as they were told the group of Jinchuriki dispersed amongst themselves and attempted to socialize. Mainly the excitable Fuu "Can you believe it Shibuki-senpai? I'm finally seeing the world and meeting new friends, just like I've always wanted to do!"

"Don't be too enthusiastic Fuu-chan, this is still a dangerous mission. If we get caught you may die, and I refuse to let that happen."

"Your such a worrywart Shibuki-senpai, not everyone in the world will try to kill me. I betcha I can make some great friends here; like that blonde guy!" Fuu said as she pointed to an irritated Naruto and ran up to him "My name is Fuu Takino, what's yours?"

"Um...My name is Naruto...Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto."

"YAY! I told you I could make friends here Shibuki-senpai. In your face." Fuu ran back up to her embarrassed caretaker while a small smile graced Naruto's face.

_'This girl's a lot like me back then. I just hope she's not as big a doormat as I was, otherwise we might be in a whole mess of trouble." _Naruto thought to himself before another high pitched voice came from the outside as the door to the capitol building was opened. But this voice didn't supply Naruto with happy memories.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura cried as she shoved the others out of the way, before glomping the even more irritated Sasuke "I'm so happy to see Sasuke-kun. I've been so lonely since Homage-sama disbanded Team 7. After you get back from the mission, will you go out with me?"

"No."

Despite having heard this answer for almost 7 years now, Sakura still appeared incredibly dejected by this rejection, much to the annoyance of any kunoichi in the group. That's when she noticed Naruto nearby and bitterly "Don't even think about asking me out Naruto-baka. There's no way I'll ever say yes to you."

"Wasn't planning on it dumbs. I've been dating Hinata-chan for 2 1/2 months now so there'd literally be no point to me doing something like that." Naruto rejected her idea very bluntly, shocking the pink haired genie even more.

"_Bbbbut you can't do that...You love me...What? You...you..._"

"It's called moving the hell on Sakura. I did it 6 years ago; maybe you should give it a try." Naruto told his former crush even more bluntly than before as he walked by.

Meanwhile Sasuke felt something different in his bag after passing by a certain villager. Thinking it strange Sasuke pulled out a unfamiliar scroll from the bag, and unrolled it to reveal the contents of the scroll. Contents that gave Sasuke an excited smile.

_At the midpoint of the journey, you will come across the Valley of the End. At this point Lord Pein and other members of the Akatsuki will be waiting to attack, and it is then you will Roronoa Naruto by giving him to Pein once the other Jinchuriki and their bodyguards have knocked __unconscious. With him gone we will have no other obstacles in our goal._

_-Tobi_

**_The Santatsu Foundation_**

* * *

About a day after the Jinchuriki left for their mysterious shelter somewhere else in the South Blue, Team 8 and Isaribi were eating at the local BBQ restaurant Yakiniku. Isaribi was feeling a little sick this morning, but she decided to go anyways.

"I'm still surprised you managed to get a girlfriend Kiba-san. Especially one so, how do I put it...out of your league." Shino teased his best friend to which he angrily replied.

"At least I've had more girlfriends than you, you bug freak!"

Hinata giggled at her teammates argument "I'm really glad to be able to meet you in person Isaribi-chan. If you don't mind me asking, are you going to be joining Team 8?"

"What are you talking about Hinata-san, it's only been a week or so since I stationed back in Konoha. Well it's not like I haven't thought about it at all, but!" Isarbi tried to explain herself to the other kunoichi, with her voice cracking several times. This garnered the typical reaction from Kiba.

_"Kawaii"_

"Stop doing that Kiba-kun its so creepy." Israeli scolded her significant other, while Akamaru merely whined at the interactions from below the table.

"Well in any case, this was a nice lunch but since Kiba and Isaribi are off leave we should probably get going." Kurenai ordered her team of gennin and chunin before each of them heard a large group of people screaming from outside the restaurant. They ran out to see a large group of what appeared to be ugly, misshapen human chimeras running down the street and attacking random commander was a familiar man in a top hat also attacking villagers.

**"Shigan"**

**"Rankyakyu"**

**"Bachi"**

**"Madara"**

This assault was stopped by Kurenai who grabbed onto his arm in her panther form before he could grab onto another villager "Judging by the robes I'd say your apart of the Akatsuki. Well I'd hate to tell you but your presence here is pointless since all the Jinchuriki have all been evacuated from this continent by now."

"You are a foolish woman if you think we'd allow you to send our important beasts out like that. But speaking of beasts, I wonder how a fight between a leopard man and panther woman would go."

**"Jyuuken"**

Lucci was then unexpectedly knocked back by Hinata who had her Byakugen fully activated and in offensive "I won't let you lay a hand on my sensei, my teammates, or Naruto-kun, you Akatsuki scum. Get out of our village now and take your experiments with you. Or else next time I'll blow up your heart!"

**"Chimera Smash"**

**"Kaiten"**

Another attacker me an attempt to come from behind and crush Hinata with a super strong punch, but were easily knocked back with the kaiten shield into another building. However when the dust cleared the ninja of Team 8 saw exactly who it was. Someone who both Kiba and Isaribi glared down with pure hate. Shou Tucker now in full Akatsuki regalia.

"I'm sorry for interrupting that, but you hit really hard . Its no wonder your the heir to the Hyuuga clan, but I'd hate it if you got rid if that fun seal. It's rather fascinating to see how long it will take a branch member to die after being afflicted with the seal. You're the one Roronoa Naruto is involved with, the one who cut off my first arm. I think I should show him how that feels."

* * *

**(A/N): I swear these chapters are getting even longer. Aside from the ****obvious length of this chapter issue I'm sure your all dying to know why this chapter took so long. Well the thing i-**

**Ikō: Don't forget to vote for me as best Akatsuki member on Skillet's profile!**

**DON'T INTERRUPT MY AUHTOR'S NOTE IKŌ! I WANNA GET TO BED SOON DAMNIT!**

**First I'll start with the reason that makes the most sense. I'm in high school. While I thought the workload might ease a little after finals, I was very wrong and things picked up very quickly. Not to mention I had several club related things to work on in the meantime.**

**Now for the less than stellar excuses. About halfway through the production writer's block reared its ugly head and refused to go away until months later. And there's technology just being a dick. A lot of the time I write using my iPad. However recently its refused to load, simply freezing while loading the page and losing the server. This led to my data being lost more than 3 times, even while I was still writing. Eventually I rage quit and borrowed my dad's laptop, which I am currently typing on. Since winter is practically over now and no snow days have come to give me time to write, don't expect a back to back update this year. Hopefully we'll be able to get the next chapter out sooner this time.**

**See ya later. Same ninja time. Same pirate channel!**

**. . . **


	24. Mice in a Trap

**Disclaimer:****I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then...Ah screw it. There's no way I can ever make this chapter funny no matter how many jokes are in it.**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 22: Mice in a Trap:**

* * *

In a remote and abandoned part of the Land of Fire where nothing lay but an old building and a few fence lines, the serial killer and Akatsuki chairman known as Hidan the Reaper. Currently his partner was engaged in a bounty transaction on the black market, and due to his impatient nature Hidan was bored out of his mind. After some time he heard some foot steps coming from behind.

"It took you long enough Kakuzu. Those leaf shinobi will get here any second now." Hidan said before a thrown shrunken made him realize the man behind him was not his partner. He turned to see Asuma Sarutobi, and launched his scythe at the bearded jounin. This backfired when he felt himself unable to move all the sudden.

"You're way to slow buddy. Kotetsu, finish this guy off!"

Kotetsu did as told when he jumped from the shadows of the old building with his mace armed in its regular form. With a single swing of his weapon slamming into Hidan, an audible crack could be heard and Hidan's neck slumped lifeless. But surprisingly to the certain members of this force, the body started to groan.

"Dammit that hurt you jackass. Didn't your parents ever teach you not to do that to other people?"

"What the hell is going on here? I know that attack snapped his neck like a twig. Is this guy immortal or something?"

"No shit sherlock, now what the hell do you want from me. I'm a busy man and I haven't got all day." Hidan asked his attackers before noticing the bearded jounin in front of him "You're Asuma Sarutobi aren't you? Just great, now I have to wait even longer for Kakuzu to get back. Oh well at least I can sacrifice one of you punks. Hope you didn't pull any lottery tickets out, cause this isn't your lucky day!"

Hidan then started focusing purple chakra around his body, somehow completely severing the hold of Shikamaru's shadow on him and knocking him back "What the hell was that, you can't just break out of my shadow like that."

"Freaky body warped powers, odd purple chakra, terrible vibe. Could this guy be one of those Ochichite I heard of from Otou-sama?" Asuma thought to himself before another explosion came from Shikamaru's position. He managed to escape the blast, but so did the source of the explosion, Kakuzu the Heartless.

"Asuma Sarutobi? I have to admit Reaper, for once you appear to have struck gold."

"Save it Kakuzu. Let me sacrifice these punks, then they're all yours."

"Asuma-sensei, earlier you were muttering about some Ochichite something or other. What exactly are these things, and what do these guys have to do with them."

"The one with the scythe is Ochichite, meaning fallen. Basically these guys have committed acts so evil, they're chakra changed into that of demonic yokai. This allows them to warp their body's like if they had a Devil Fruit power or a Biju tenant. Captain Kuro in the East Blue is one of these, and Shou Tucker likely became one. The plan is that you need to catch the Ochichite in your Shadow Sewing Jutsu, and that will give me the opportunity to remove his head. Kotetsu, you'll supply backup to Shikamaru in case Kakuzu attacks."

"But sensei, won't that make you a sacrificial piece if they freaky heart guy goes for you?"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. Besides I've got you with me so that puts me in a good position."

"Are you guys talking about me? That's pretty rude you know" Hidan said as he slid his foot across the ground, creating a red trail behind it. When he had completely rotated, a red ritual circle had been made in the ground with his own blood "But that's okay, your souls will be eaten by Jashin soon anyways."

**"Shadow Stiching Jutsu"**

"Sorry, nope." Hidan taunted Shikamaru as he jumped into air and just avoided the attack. That's when Asuma made a certain stance which somehow made a Buddha apparition appear and knock Hidan back. And when he landed he had a whole onslaught of shrunken to avoid, as well as Shikamaru's jutsu.

Meanwhile Kakuzu just stood there watching with his soulless green eyes _'How long until this guy interferes. We can't depend on him to just stay put for long.'_

"It's always the same with you nonbelievers. So desperate to escape your fate you resort to attacking Jashin's servants. Maybe if you accepted him as your god he'd let you live!" Hidan ranted and raved as he continuously dodged the shadow, and failed to notice Kotetsu sneaking up on him from behind.

Figuring that his opponents end was near, Asuma decided to let out a small quip "Sorry buddy, but you''l have to find someone else for your crazy god to eat. I'd probably just give him indigestion!"

**"Conch Shell Mace"**

"Oh really?" Hidan asked his opponent before turning avoiding Kotetsu's attack. However this got him caught right in Shikamaru's shadow, as they came from the ground and tangled around his body. Now the only thing to do was for Asuma to take off his head.

**"Flying Swallow"**

That attack was all it took to send his head flying off his body right then and there. While they were certain this was enough to finish him off, Kakuzu launched himself to the body and its decapitated head nearby. Before anyone could stop him Kakuzu had used his powers to sew the head back on, revealing a still alive Hidan.

"You shouldn't be so reckless. If they had actually tried to stop me just now, you and I would be sitting ducks."

"Chill your jets Kakuzu. You were so fast they didn't even know you are about to do that. Now lets get onto the fun part! The sacrifice!" Hidan said before launching the scythe at the nearby Kotetsu. Luckily for the chunnin Shikamaru caught the rope holding the weapon, only for Hidan to have it switch paths right into Asuma's face causing a small cut.

"Crap, Asuma-sensei I'm sorry about that!"

"Don't worry about Shikamaru its just a small cut. Nothing I'm going to die from!" Asuma reassured his former student, only to sense a field of yokai spreading around his body and a sick feeling in his stomach. He turned his head to see Hidan's skin was turning black and white after licking his scythe, and he was back on the previously made blood circle. Now the serial killer had an even more insane look on skeleton like face than before.

**"Curse Jutsu: Death Controlling Blood Possession"**

* * *

A little bit earlier that day, the group of Jinchuriki were walking to a port in the North where they would be shipped off to another island in the South Blue until the Akatsuki was captured and terminated. Naruto felt his pride hurt from having to do this _'I can't believe I'm being forced to just runaway like this. I would have objected but Jiisama would have just lectured me again. What's even worse is that they paired me with Sasuke-teme again.'_

"I still don't think its fair how you get a hot young woman for both your biju and your bodyguard Han. Especially when both of mine are men!" Roshi complained to his Iwa comrade.

"Not my fault I'm so much younger than you Roshi. But its not like you'd get away with hitting on the Tsuchikage's granddaughter like that. Hell Kurotsuchi alone would probably kill you in a millisecond." Han explained while pointing at his bodyguard, who responded with a glare aimed towards both men.

_'Not to mention I'm stuck with that pervert again. And if that Utakata guy is anything like his tenant, I might be in even serious trouble with another pervert. But on the other hand Killer B and Fu seem pretty ok, and I get to see Gaara-san again which is nice. But then there are the one's I know nothing about like Han or that Yugito lady. And besides Temari and Shibuki I'm not overtly familiar with any of the bodyguards here.'_

Naruto then took note of Chojūro who seemed very interested in him. But it wasn't the good kind of interest, he could tell that much _'Wonder what's with that guy. I suppose I should be used to people not liking me by now.'_

"Naruto-kun!" Naruto was broken from his wandering thoughts when Fuu grabbed him from behind and started excitedly chirping in his ear "I wonder how much longer it'll take for us to get to the ship. Shibuki-kun told me we were about halfway there, but he didn't tell me the amount of time it would take. Maybe we should play a game or something to pass the time."

"No thanks. There's not that many games we could play right now since we've got to keep moving, and I don't really feel like playing Spot the Palanquin."

"Why not, that's a super fun game?!"

_Not just a slaya'_

_Cinderface a playa'_

"SHUT THE HELL UP B, I'M ALREADY SEEING SOMEONE!"

_Sorry man, no need to rage!_

_Just joking, didn't know you were already engaged!_

"It's not like that either B, me and Hinata-chan are only dating right now. Want to talk about being engaged to someone talk to her." Naruto decided to tease Temari by pointing to her, which only made Gaara angrier.

"Not you too Naruto-san."

_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**_

Interrupting the banter was a large and monstrous roar coming from up ahead, which caused all members of the group to stop dead in their tracks. The only one who seemed to be expecting something like this was Sasuke. The roar was even odder as the longer it lasted, the less natural and the more machine-like it sounded.

"w-What was that?" Akatscuhi was to first to speak up about the sound from the north.

"Whatever it was, we have to assume it involved the Akatsuki. If they set a trap for us up ahead, then the best decision would be to turn back to Konohagakure and stay there until the passage is safe again." Yugito deduced and decided, to which most of the other Jinchuriki and bodyguards agreed with. The exceptions were the obvious example of Sasuke, and strangely Naruto seemed to be deep in thought.

"But if this is a trap, which it most likely is, then I seriously doubt that they'll just let us walk away from it like nothing happened. They'll probably send a chairman out into the open to make sure we meet up with whatever they have planned." Naruto came up with another theory to the situation.

Unfortunately for the group Naruto was proven right seconds later when a chairman of the Akatsuki appeared from where the group came. The only specific details that could be listed about this man were his spiky black hair and a vortex like orange mask which completely covered up his mask.

Despite the man's intimidating appearance, he spoke with a goofy and childish voice "Cinderface-kun is right, we did send a chairman to ensure your capture! Though I guess I'm technically not a chairman yet...My name is Faceless and I've been sent to take you to the Valley of the End!"

"Sorry baka, but unless you're as strong Pein and Itachi combined you don't have a chance of taking all of us at once!" Kurotscuchi taunted the masked man. But much to the surprise of her and the rest of the platoon, Tobi formed a large portal in front of him and launched it at an incredibly high speed, containing each jinchuriki and their bodyguards almost instantly.

**"Kamui"**

Now all the jinchuriki were floating in a separate dimenison, with their perceptions warped and able to move their bodies lost. The dimension appeared to be filled with an endless array of large white pillars. Only Sasuke knew what had happened _'This is the Kamui dimension, something only wielders of the Mangekyo Sharingan can access. So how does that idiot Tobi know how to access it. He's not even an Uchiha.'_

_'Wait we can hear each other's thoughts in this dimension? I'd better think in a whisper until we get out of here. But more importantly how does Sasuke-teme know who this guy is? Does this have something to do with Ibiki's murder? And how much more does this time know?' Naruto thought aloud, though he kept it to a much lower pitch than Sasuke, so it wasn't heard by anyone else._

Before Naruto could regain his senses in the other dimension he woke up in the middle of the rain, somewhere at a lakeside. The first thing he saw when he regained consciousness was a concerned Yugito "Roronoa-san, are you okay? You and Uchiha-san took the brunt of the attack, so you were knocked out for a short while.

"Thanks for the check up Yugito-senpai, but where the hell are we?" Naruto said as he thoroughly examined his surroundings to see he was not near a lake as predicted but on a valley with a large waterfall nearby. He could also tell they were behind very large statues of Konoha's founders Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.

"I'm impressed Otouto. Normally those hit by Tobi's Kamui portal first are out of it for at least 12 hours; but you regain consciousness after a few seconds." Naruto turned his head to see the seven voices speaking at once, almost all of them having orange hair and rinnegan eyes the sole exception being a woman with red hair.

"Niiteme!" Naruto spat at his elder brother he returned the glare with equal fervor.

"I'm hurt Naruto-kun, and here I thought we could have a better relationship than Itachi-san and his younger brother. And for the record my name is Yahiko. Yahiko Namikaze."

"You think we care about your name fool? I'll take you down right now!" Karui armed her sword and ran up towards the main body of Pein, but was knocked away in an instant by the red-haired woman.

**"Shinra Tensei"**

With the hot-blooded Kumo kunoichi knocked away and fainted, Konan flew up to her old teammate and began asking "That's one down Pein-sama. Shall we summon the others?"

**"Summoning Jutsu: Demonic Outer Path Statue"**

Pein answered Konan with a quick summoning, revealing Kisame, Itachi, and Tobi standing in front of the Impure World Resurrection Statue. But this time something was different about the statue. It was clearly moving on all fours "This is the work of Genius. As long as an Akatsuki chairman is there for the statue to track, you cannot avoid instant death from the statue's power."

* * *

"I'm sorry for interrupting that, but you hit really hard . Its no wonder your the heir to the Hyuuga clan, but I'd hate it if you got rid if that fun seal. It's rather fascinating to see how long it will take a branch member to die after being afflicted with the seal. You're the one Roronoa Naruto is involved with, the one who cut off my first arm. I think I should show him how that feels."

Shou Tucker was interrupted from his threat towards the young girl when he felt numerous incredibly painful strings cover his original arm. He tore back his cloak to reveal multiple large hornets stinging his arm, courtesy of Shino.

"I see you've met my Giant Asian Hornets Tucker-san. This particular species is very docile and will not attack unless threatened, but have a dangerous neurotoxin in their stingers."

"Oh no, what will I do I'm going to die! Please spare me, I'll do anything you say I swear!" Shou Tucker began to pathetically grovel before Shino, until looked back up at him with a smile worthy of a slasher flick "Just kidding."

**"Stinger Claw"**

Thankfully Shino saw this kind of thing coming from the madman and avoided the attack from the now clawed Tucker "Like my new powers Aburame-san. Thanks to Pein-sama I can copy the physical features and adaptions of any species on earth with a small DNA. And thanks to these bugs on my arm I just got a free sample!"

"Hinata, Shino, I need you to either help Kurenai with that leopard guy or take out the Akatsuki agents and chimeras. Me, Akamaru, and Isaribi will take this bastard down."

"Kiba-san, I understand the two of you have a personal history with this man, but for now we need you to put your foolish pride aside and-"

"It isn't just foolish pride Shino. Think about it; if you try to fight Tucker with your bugs than it will only increase his range of attack. And Hinata is better for taking out multiple enemies at once. Just help Kurenai-senpai with Lucci. That man was nearly able to defeat Monkey D. Luffy so she'll need all the help she can get." Isaribi explained to the Nara. Though he wanted to object, he could think no sufficient argument and left to help Kurenai once Lucci gained orientation.

"Isaribi-chan, are you sure your up to this. Your smiley form might give him more DNA."

"So, its the same thing with you and Akamaru. We have to take that risk Kiba-kun." Isaribi told her lover while ripping off her bandages and changing into her fish monster form.

"Against taking risks Isaribi-chan? That's funny whenever you worked as my lieutenant you avoided angering me as much as possible. Maybe you should avoid taking the risk of fighting me and just submit to the Akatsuki. Just like you always do." Shou Tucker insulted his former subordinate, who responded with a growl and scream.

"TUCKER!"

Now Lucci had regained sense of what was going on and stood while placing his top hat back on his head. Things only got worse when a large group of beetles began to charge the former CP9 agent. Despite this he was easily able to dodge most of them with his abilities, but still suffered a few bites from the beetles.

"I trust you've met my tiger beetles. They're the fasters insect on the planet, with a running speed of 9 km/h. Another thing their known for is their highly aggressive nature towards its prey."

This didn't seem to be much of a problem for Lucci once he got used to the beetles charging him, as he simply knocked them out of the way. After awhile, he made it what he considered to be safe ground, but still wondered where his other opponent was. He got his answer when a panther woman came from the wall behind him.

**"Surface Hiding Technique"**

**"Shigan"**

He immediately reacted to the attack which sent the jounin cringing to the ground, clutching the wound on her chest. Lucci then made an attempt to finish her off, but failed as the jounin faded away into flower petals. This left Lucci to ponder to himself again.

"I'm judging from how much time you've spent running from me you're not much of a physical fighter. That's a bad choice of Devil Fruit than, Zoan types are mainly reserved for those who wish to fight physically." Lucci mocked Kurenai only to have this decision bite him in his ass about two seconds later when tight branches wrapped around his body and pulled him against the wall.

**"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death"**

While Lucci attempted to tear himself from the vines, they refused to yield in the slightest. It was at this point Shino approached him "Looks like Kutenai-Sensei finally caught you. Now lets see Justice, how many fire ant bites can you take before falling unconscious?"

_'How is that woman doing this to me? This is a building; there can't possibly be any roots coming from its foundation! Maybe its another genjutsu? That has to be it! Now I just need to break free.' _Lucci thought to himself while using Tekkai to soften the blow from the fire ants all over his body. Being as strong as he is, Lucci only took a few moments to break free of his binds and counterattack Shino.

**"Shigan"**

The assassin grinned at the sight of opponent painfully clutching his wound, and was about to go in for the kill before a whole swarm kikaichu beetles spilled from the hole now in Shino's shoulder. They viciously attacked Lucci and syphoned his energy until Kurenai tackled him in her complete beast form.

"Do you think that was enough to finish him off Kurenai-sensei?" Shino asked his mentor while stood up and changed back into a human.

"Hardly. We can come at him with all our strength but we have to remember this guy's an Akatsuki chairman, not to mention a former Cipher Pol agent. We would be fools to let our guards down or underestimate him."

Needless to say Kurenai was correct. Very correct. Lucci rose up from the ground hardly looking fazed by the onslaught he just went through, with his signature sadistic grin and a mass of killing intent floating around him, like the shinigami himself was standing before Shino and Kurenai.

"That was a fun little warm up. Now I can show you what I can really do."

Though she was taking on the human chimeras away from the fight against Lucci, Hinata could still feel the killing intent leaking off of him _'This could by bad. Those two might not be able to fight someone like him on their own, and I these chimeras just won't let up. I just hope Isaribi-chan and Kiba-kun will be __able to handle themselves against Tucker.'_

**"Gatsuga"**

**"Water Style: Giant Bullet Stream"**

Just as Hinata had hoped Kiba, Akamaru, and Isaribi were having much greater luck against their opponent. While Shou Tucker's smarts with medical and scientific ninjutsu got him into the position of Captain, he only had a basic knowledge of combat. And his adaptive abilities weren't helping much as he already had the dog and fish DNA strands from Pein previously.

The Akatsuki doctor had to wait until the smoke cleared to see that everything had gone blurry and wet. It only took him a few moments for Shou to realize that he was encased in a water bubble made by Isaribi. Panicking he quickly used his abilities to give himself gills on the side of his neck so he could breath. This still didn't make him safe though as Kiba was already homing in on him from above.

**"Tsuga"**

The rotating missile of an attack crashed into the bubble trap, the moment Isaribi jumped out of the way and released the jutsu. Now the mad scientist serial killer once again found himself on the ground, breathing heavily from another beating at the hands of the Inuzuka duo and his former lieutenant. Before he could get back up again, an Akamaru who was steamed up on food pills as suggested by his now red fur crashed into him with a headbutt, right into another water jutsu from Isaribi in her Kaima form.

**"Water Palm Blade"**

For the umpteenth time in a row Shou Tucker was knocked back by one of his relentless opponents "You think I can't fight you bastard! The only reason I let you treat me like that as a first place was so you didn't sell me out to that bastard Danzō as one of your experiments! But I would have preferred that over what you did to poor Nina!"

"You think I care about all that. The only thing it reminds me of is how my greatest experiment was ruined by the Kyuubi and your dog boytoy! And even with my new arm I can't do a single jutsu, all thanks to that stupid demon fox gaki!..But that's okay, I've made a much greater experiment than you or Nina could ever be." Shou said smugly while pushing up his glasses and growing lizard like features such as scales and a tail.

**"Komodo Venom Rush"**

Shou rushed at incredible speed to bite into Isaribi with the shark like teeth he developed from his newfound abilities. However thanks to the strength of Isaribi's scales, all that got him was a couple of broken teeth. Akamaru took the opportunity to speed up and nail him across the jaw while transformed into Kiba.

**"All Fours Jutsu: Wolf Bullet"**

Being so close to Shou Tucker right after the attack backfired on Akamaru when he turned back into a dog, when the Akatsuki chairman formed a donkey leg and kicked the dog away. Kia was visibly angered by this as he ran up to Tucker and began rapidly swiping at him with his claw like hands, giving him only a moment to avoid each scratch "Time to pay for what you did to Nina and Alexander. I swear I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else."

"If you want to kill me so badly Inuzuka, then you'll have to actually get close to me first!" Shou taunted his younger nemesis, before a painful whole punched through his stomach made him realize exactly what Kiba was leading him into.

**"Water Release: Tearing Torrent"**

Shou clutched the wound made by Isaribi in agony as the two ninja stood before him with glares that could cut through iron "You had enough yet Captain?"

"Cause there's plenty more were that came front."

This finally pushed Tucker over the edge of what little sanity he had to begin with, though to an outside eye it appeared he had completely calmed down. He cracked his neck twice as if in preparation for a fight, but much to the shock of anyone there on the third crack he had completely turned his head upside down. Things only got stranger when he grew large bat like ears, he began to grow taller and bulkier, and a large machine like noise was emitted from where Naruto had previously amputated his arm.

"Oh yes, it seems all this time neither of you have seen my new arm. I still can't perform hand signs with it, but I guess you could say its given me a far greater ability." Shou tore open the right side of his arm to reveal a large mechanical arm, pulsing with pistons, steam, and test tubes with oddly colored liquids in them "This allows me to take on the form of my ultimate experiment, the truly perfect chimera. I guess you could say Nina was the foundation for this. The White Castle Devil"

"_How...dare...you."_

"It's been fun you two but I'm afraid one of you is going to die now. I think I'll pick the Inuzuka."

**"Giraffa Dracula"**

Before either of them could do anything Shou Tucker's neck shot out to an extreme length and bit into Isaribi's neck. This time his large bat fangs were sharp enough to pierce her scales. Within mere seconds Tucker had taken two pints of her blood and forced her out of her smiley form. The instant he released his fangs, the girl dropped to the ground barely conscious.

Shocked by what just happened in a matter of about fifteen seconds, Kiba screamed in anger "What the hell did you do to Isaribi-chan?"

"I merely took a few pints of her blood to make her too tired to fight anymore. I wouldn't want her interfering with my next great experiment. The death of a pathetic little dobe named Kiba Inuzuka."

* * *

Back in the Valley of the End, both the Confinement Group and the Akatsuki chairman stared each other down with equal ferocity. The most thick tension seemed to be between Naruto and Yahiko. Tension also seemed to be coming towards Sasuke, who stared angrily at Pein's eyes.

"What is that dojutsu? I've never seen that before!" Sasuke asked to himself with jealousy towards the rinnegan. It only got worse when Chiyo explained exactly what it was, of course while playing senile simply to mess with those listening.

"Well if we done talking about 9th Doctor and the isosceles demons, I know exactly what those eyes are. They're the eye of the Senju clan (though they don't really appear in that clan much anymore, with it being more common in distant relatives nowadays), the Rinnegan. They allow the user a wide range of abilities, but the main one is the power to exist in numerous bodies at once. This is called the Six Paths of Pain." Chiyo explained before turning to the Uchiha with a mischievous grin "I makes the power of the Uchiha clan look like that of an earthworm!"

"That's impossible you old hag! The Uchiha is the most elite clan of Konoha, and I am its most powerful member!"

"Oh real"ly teme. You better have the balls to back up that claim then." Naruto said while pointing directly at Itachi, who was standing near the Demonic Outer Path Statue reading a copy of...Icha Icha Violence? Sasuke instinctively turned on his sharingan and charged up the waterfall towards his elder brother.

However Itachi seemed to not even notice that Sasuke was approaching, as he was much more invested in his book than anything. That is until he received a smack to the back of the head with a paper fan, courtesy of Konan "Genocide! Would you take your nose out of that book you pervert!"

"I don't know why you're complaining Lady Angel. Pein-sama has a whole trunk full of these things."

"He doesn't role-play them when he thinks his partner's out of the hotel room." Kisame made fun of his closet pervert partner before he noticed Sasuke charging towards them "Hey Genocide, looks like your kid brother is coming in for a spell."

"I suspected he would try something like this. But he hasn't truly become strong in recent years, so his endeavor of killing me will not come to pass today." Itachi said with the smallest hint of sadness in his voice, before preparing to block the incoming attack.

**"Fire Release: Flaming Hammer"**

**"Early Sacrifice"**

Itachi grabbed his younger brother by the shoulder and threw him back down into the lake below, much to his anger. Before he could run back up though, Kisame and Itachi had already made it down "I have to say Brother wasn't it nice of them to send all the jinchuriki to this one spot? Certainly saved us the trouble of hunting them down one by one."

"I know just who I want to take down today." Kisame glared specifically at Naruto, who unsheathed all his swords in preparation for his rematch with the fishman. But before Kisame could even make it close to Naruto, Killer B intervened.

_What's up there Jabberjaw?_

_It's quite the disgrace_

_But I can't let you cut up Cinderface_

_Our fight of swordsmen was interupted by an emo_

_Won't let anything else disrupt my flow!_

_Jinchuriki vs Akatsuki_

_Natural enemies for sure_

_So now I think it's time we learn_

_Who's better?_

_The scheming chairman _

_Or noble demon!_

"Get out of my way you idiot! That Cinderfaced gaki is going to have his head on a pike by the end of today and you don't have a say on the matter!" Kisame screamed as he began to slip Samehada from its bandages.

Naruto recognized this and warned his fellow jinchuriki of what was to come "B that blade isn't an ordinary weapon. It will eat your swords if your not careful!

Killer B pulled back his swords slightly once he heard this, which was all Kisame needed to force his own sword through and cause large lacerations across B's chest. While B was brought to his knees by the blow, Kisame slipped by and went for Naruto who was still in defensive position. Before he could make, he was knocked back several feet by the sword Hiramekarei, and its wielder Chojūro.

"I won't let anyone take that man's life. Not until I enact my vengeance on him." Chojūro said with a look of pure hatred on his face.

"What did you do to that guy to make him so mad at you Naruto-san? Did you kill his father or something?" Gaara asked, though Naruto didn't exactly know the answer either.

"Beats me. I've killed a lot of criminals in my day as a bounty hunter, so it's possible that's the case. But that doesn't mean I can just let him hog all the fun with that with that teme."

With that Naruto made his own charge against the Akatsuki fishman with all three of his swords unsheathed and ready to go. Kisame now had to fend off attacks from both of the legendary swordsman. The fishman was about to completely pull off the bandages from Samehada, but found himself on the receiving end of an uppercut from a sword B dropped, allowing Chojūro and Naruto to unleash an attack on him.

**"How dare you hurt my Jinchuriki-Punch!"**

All eight of B's swords began to glow with light and he let them fly together to let Gyuki reveal its human form. The man was tall and muscular with short and spiky light blue hair and red eyes similar to his younger brother. These eyes could not be easily seen under the most striking feature of the Hatchibi: A pair of large pointed sunglasses with a red shade to them. The biju also wore black pants held up with a white sash and an unbuttoned red overcoat.

The man seemed to have an incredibly happy aura to him, along with one that seemed to exhibit pure badassery. He walked up to his bleeding Jinchuriki and began to heal his wound with a youkai surge "You still alive there buddy."

"Don't worry Gyuki-niisan. I won't let him beat me!"

"Good now let's teach that fisherman a lesson." Gyuki claimed before turning to Kisame shouting "Hey Fishman! Who the hell do you think we are?!"

**"Acrobat"**

All three of the swordsman charged at the fisherman as fast as they possibly could, with their swords armed. But the only thing the blades struck was each other as Kisame released the chakra in his feet and sank into the lake below. Now all three of the swordsman were on guard for a potential attack, but were broken from that guard when a deep scream of agony came from the other side of the lake.

**"Tsukoyomi"**

They turned around to see that the rest of the group that was fighting with Itachi, and that Akatsuchi had let himself get captured in one of his genjutsu, causing the golem he'd formed to fall to pieces and him to fall and sink into the lake. Luckily for him Shibuki had pulled him out and placed him on the valley shore alongside Karui.

"That was to close. We can't be reckless like that around the Uchiha again." The Taki leader said before he swam back to the rocky shore and placed the unconscious Akatsuchi on the shore.

Rossi angrily responded to the command by swinging Son Goku at Itachi, who attempted to guard with his sword. However he learned that Son Goku was no force to be reckoned with when it broke the knife and forced him to dodge. However an airborne Fuu put him on the end of an attack he couldn't dodge.

**"Nectar Light Cannon"**

Fuu shot a web of goo from her mouth which quickly dissipated into a sparkling light and Itachi in the back with a puff of smoke. However he countered at another attempt at a hammer attack from Fu with a kick to the stomach causing the Yonbi jinchuriki to crash into the rock behind. This backfired when Roshi ate the rock and began glowing molten red with balls of magma in his hands.

"I was holding back before. But now you can see my true power; the reason I'm considered on par with the Three Sannin."

"You must be similar to Jiraiya-senpai somehow. After all you both waste ample opportunities to reveal their true powers while your moment of distraction causes you to lose to a much weaker opponent."

While Roshi was confused at first by this comment, he quickly got his answer to the situation when Kisame came from underwater and swung an un-bandaged and much larger Samehada into his chin, knocking off several pounds of lava and knocking him unconscious almost instantly. As Itachi said, though Roshi was stronger than Kisame he was defeated by distraction. Though this was not entirely his fault, as though none of the shinobi there noticed it the Shinju statue nearby was weakening them compared to the Akatsuki members, weakening them and making it for them to fight.

**"Iron Kitsune Armor"**

While Itachi was focusing on Roshi's defeat nearby, he was blindsided by another enemy and received a large scratch to the chest. This was Naruto who was fully immersed in his elemental form. This resulted in Itachi being placed on the defensive again, having to avoid even more scratches from Naruto's bladed claws. And Kisame couldn't help him at all since he was currently fending off an attack from B, Yugito, Utakata, and Temari.

**"Jutoryu: Rage of the Lost Soul"**

Itachi also found himself on the end of another attack by the Gobi bodyguard and granddaughter of Onoki, Kurotrsuchi, who was going at him at a rapid rate with her own sword "I've been waiting to see you Cinderface. Since your the first shinbone in history to have achieved the rank of Shichibukai, that probably means you're a worthy opponent. But be warned, if we fight than I will have no choice but to kill you for the honor of Iwagakure, just as you will do to me for Konohagakure!"

"No can do I'm afraid. I don't really fight all that much for Konoha, as I do for the people I care about who just so happen to live there. My honor belongs to swordsmanship, so I won't lose until I find Dracule Mihawk."

"That's funny, I figured you would have already done so at one of those government meetings they send you to!"

"I was planning on it, but the bastard didn't show. The only ones besides me who did were Weevil and PX-0. Kind of made it a waste of time."

_**"Cut the idle conversation. It only helps the enemy dodge your attacks." **_Kokuō scolded Naruto and Kurotsuchi from her weapon.

"She's right you know. You need to focus more on your enemy; if not then another warrior could swoop in and take your kill." Han said while charging at an incredible speed towards Itachi, with his rapier pointed in a jabbing position and began to thrust when close enough.

**"Wind Shot"**

Knowing what was coming, both Kurotsuchi and Naruto leapt out of the way while Itachi took the brunt of the attack. But strangely he acted as if it was only a weak punch, as opposed to the sharp stab through the shoulder as it was.

Han was shocked by this strange occurrence, just as would be expected _'What the hell is going here? Even against high jounin level ninja that attack can completely blow of your arm. And Itachi Uchiha has no reported devil fruit powers. Could there be something weakening our attacks? I have felt a strange presence since we got here. But from where?...The statue!"_

"Everybody, the statue is weakening our powers? We need to get up there an destroy it pronto!"

"Nice deduction 5. But going near it would be suicide since it's how we extract the biju specifically." Itachi explained the weakness, and while he had a moments rest unleashed a flurry of his own attacks onto the group.

**"Demonic Illusion: Crow Mirage"**

**"Karasuma Gari"**

As the crows flocked around the lake, Naruto jumped up into the air and sent multiple slashes at the crows. While many of them were destroyed by the onslaught, one managed to avoid the attack and forced its way down the swordsman's throat. It only took a few short moments for Naruto's vision to go fuzzy and for him to lose touch with reality.

_Six years ago, Naruto was still trying to figure out the Santoryu technique without falling flat on his ass due to the lack of balance caused by the extra sword between his too. After trying and failing to perform the Tatsu Maki, he heard a noise coming from the bushes nearby._

_This noise was his teacher, Roronoa Zoro who had just got back from fishing at the nearby. Though as expected from the swordsman he got lost multiple times on the way back "About time I get back here, stupid merchant gave me bad directions. Any progress on Santoryu?"  
_

_"Nothing. I've made like 700 shadow clones but I still can't seem to make any progress."_

_"Maybe we should try a more traditional method instead then." Zoro said with an evil grin on his face. Naruto hated that look as it usually meant the training he was going to endure was going to be especially grueling._

_His suspicions were proven correct about five minutes later when he found himself on a plank above a large creek with a 50 pound weight in his mouth and both his katana stretched out in his arms. Also, he was stuck on one leg which made it even worse._

_"We'll be doing this every day until you can stay up here for an hour without falling into the creek. It should help a lot with your balance so you should figure out the gist of Santoryu afterwards." __Zoro said afterwards while walking away from the creek, before turning around and informing his student "And by the way, until you can get it up to that time, no ramen or booze for a week."_

_"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I'M GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH!"_

Naruto awakened from his flashback genjutsu to find himself hanging off of the cliff with the Yamakawa-o and saw that the melee between the Jinchuriki and Akatsuki was still going on, though a few were off to the side like Han still stuck in a genjutsu. With his sense of reality back, he jumped back into the fray.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up after that kind of attack. Are you ok Naruto-san?" Shibuki asked his old friend who responded with a quick nod "That statue up there might cause trouble for us if we let it stay intact, so one of us bodyguards will have to go up there and destroy it."

"I'm guessing you're the one who plans on doing that? Be careful the blue haired girl has Devil Fruit powers. And I don't even know what Niiteme and Mask-me are capable of."

Shibuki chuckled with a smirk at this warning, before pulling a glass bottle with familiar water out. Naruto cringed when he saw this only for it to fade when Shibuki explained "Don't worry it's not the Hero Water. After that incident 4 years ago I developed a formula with similar affects, but it won't be fatal."

With a very thick layer of chakra around him, Shibuki charged towards the waterfall and attempted to run up the valley to destroy the Outer Path statue. Keyword being attempted. Itachi halted his attempt by blocking his path up and kicking him back into the lake. Shibuki quickly rose back up and met Itachi's red gaze, attempting to start his own fight with the missing-nin. But before either of them could attack, Sasuke came out from the imprint he made in the valley and stabbed Shibuki through the chest.

**"Titanic Welder's Knife."**

"What was that you fool? That man was our ally and you just attacked him for no reason!" Yugito scolded Sasuke for his action, though only turned his head with a chuckle revealing he was coated in the cursed seal.

"Of course I had a reason for it you stupid whore. That Taki scum was going to kill Itachi, and I won't allow anyone to do that but me!"

Yugito felt her self seethe with rage at the Uchiha, as flames leapt off her body. This rage quickly turned to shock and fear when she felt Itachi shushin behind her and she instinctively reached for her chain. She became even more filled with rage than before about five seconds later when instead of attacking her, Itachi groped her butt with a blush. The pissed off Kumo kunoichi proceeded to repeatedly lash Itachi with her chain "YOU DIRTY PERVERT!"

"Damnit Genocide." Kisame said in the middle of his battle with Naruto and Darui.

"You've got to be kidding me, this guy's an even bigger pervert than Ero-Sennin."

"Damnit, I wish I'd thought of that." Roshi somehow said in his unconscious form, while Chiyo who was tending to him and the others who had been knocked unconscious by then merely scowled at the man.

"Stop being a pervert and get some rest!"

This event below with his men caused Konan to sigh and turn to Pein "Pein-sama, it appears Genocide's impudence is getting in the way of the mission. Neither of them seem to be using their full strength down there. Shall I go assist them in capturing the jinchuriki."

"No, I will go assist them. It's certainly better than being up here alone with Faceless." Yahiko said while having the Naraka Path point towards Tobi, who was currently playing with the butterflies in a field on the Otogakure border. With that explanation out of the way Pein directed all six of his paths down the mountain to fight, before turning to his second in command, before disappearing in a flash of leaves "I'll leave the rest up to you. If things get to dicey then send Faceless in to finish all but one off."

"Hey Chiyo-baachan, you said earlier that this rinnegan bloodline can put your soul into six different bodies at once right?" Naruto asked the old puppeteer who stood up while pulling out two summoning scrolls from his cloak.

"That's correct Cinderface, that is one of the rinnegan eye's primary functions. I hoped I wouldn't have to join this hodge-podge of young warriors but it appears I have no choice now." Chiyo frowned while biting her thumbs and placing the blood on the seal, causing them both to puff up into smoke. When it cleared, two human like puppets stood in their place.

**"Mother and Father"**

"That power that is greater than my sharingan. I refuse to believe it! This man must die, before Itachi even." Sasuke said angrily while preparing a flame jutsu, though he was stopped by the Matatabi chain Yugito held "You will not get in my way woman!"

"Don't be a fool Uchiha, this man is equal to Itachi if not stronger. If a genin like you tries to fight him, they will surely die. This is the job for a veteran shinobi." Yugito said while swinging her chain and charging Preta Path. However before she could make contact the chain suddenly stopped in midair, and Preta Path absorbed all her chakra in one fell swoop.

**"Shinra Tensei"**

**"Chakra Absorption Seal"**

The loss of all her chakra and a large percentage of her yokai immediately sent the normally strong willed kunoichi to the ground, completely out cold. Deva Path smiled with another enemy having been defeated, but soon found that smile fade when a field of bubbles surrounded her. This only got worse when one of the bubbles popped on the spikes jutting from Naraka Path's neck and exploded, forcing the group of Paths to disperse.

Itachi looked up to see Utakata, armed with his chainsaw up in the air floating on a bubble. He stared down onto the group with his typical sleepy eyes and droned "Did you really forget I was here Akatsuki scum? One blow from my soap bubbles can turn you to a pile of disembodied flesh."

**"Water Release: Pillar Thrust"**

The first thing Kisame did after seeing the airborne Jinchuriki was perform a seal for a jutsu to send him up to that level, making it upwards right as he finished. Utakata was expecting an attack like this and blocked Samehada with Saiken.

As the two grinder together Itachi watched with interest _'This is quite the interesting match up; Utakata was considered one of the strongest members of the Zabuza Troupe for as long as it lasted, but Kisame isn't referred to as the Zero-Tails for nothing. The only way this battle will end anytime soon is if one of them does something to slip up and get hit by the other's blade.'_

**"Superiority Hammer"**

Itachi was broken from his thoughts upon being attacked by his younger brother, though the attack was avoided. The missing nine thanked his lucky stars that he actually avoided the attack when he saw that the Curse Mark was almost in its true form, meaning Sasuke had increased in power. However it also mean that he had further decreased in sanity.

"I've waited 12 long years for this day, the day I could finally kill you. Now that I have the power of a Devil Fruit and a Orochimaru's cursed seal I can fulfill my oath as an avenger." Sasuke said with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Foolish brother, you may I have all this power at the tip of your fingers but you are still severely lacking. You are no Jinchuriki like B or...Naruto. Not to mention you don't have the power given by the Mangekyo Sharingan, like I do." Itachi demonstrated by creating small black flames in the palm of his hand. This enraged Sasuke to the point where he attacked again with his golden hands molded into maces.

**"Avenger's Mace"**

**"Amaterasu"**

As the two brothers clashed on the lake surface, a certain perverted biju watched with a particular intrigue **"Oh its so tragic. Two brothers locked in a battle of age old bad blood. The only way this could get even better would be if Naru-chan and Kuru-chan got in on the fun!"**

"Focus on the matter at hand Saiken. If we lose concentration for at least one second than this fisherman will shave off all our skin with that sword!" Utakata scolded the slug demon, only to notice that Samehada was eating into his chainsaw. He instinctively pulled the weapon away which got him a large scratch from Samehada across the chest. Right before he could save himself by creating a soap bubble for a cushion, Kisame issued one final strike which sent him floating in the lake.

**"Water Release: Shark Bullet"**

"Utakata-senpai!" Chojūro screamed when he saw his comrade slammed against the lake, before Animal Path appeared behind him.

"You shouldn't let your guard down Swordsman!"

**"Summoning Jutsu: Giant Centipede"**

In a flash of smoke Chojūro found himself face to face with the aforementioned Giant Centipede summon. Despite the size of the rinnegan being, Chojūro wasn't deterred and shyly charged the monster with his large sword. It only took one slash from Hiramekarei to slice the large beast into two. Animal Path winced when he saw Chojūro smile softly at him, before preparing to attack. Though Animal Path prepared another summoning,this changed when he saw Naruto,B,Gaara, Temari, Kurotsuchi, Fuu, and Chiyo all charging him at once. With a look of contentment, Animal Path accepted it's fate.

**"Mutilation"**

**"Onigiri"**

**"Sunaken"**

**"Beetle Light Pincer"**

**"Sickle Weasel"**

**"Acrobat"**

**"Puppet Needles"**

The next thing anybody saw of Animal Path was a mechanized wreck floating in the lake. When she saw their victory Fuu excitedly flew around on her beetle wings "Alright boys, one down five to go!"

"Don't get too excited Fuu-san. There's still the other Akatsuki to deal with, and we don't know what the other Peins are capable of yet." Naruto said, focusing specifically on Deva Path. He couldn't decide why but something felt off about the red haired woman. However, he realized a few seconds later that he should have been focusing on Naraka Path.

**"King of Hell"**

Mere moments after the jutsu was activated a head that looked like it was straight from a kabuki show. Before anyone could react to the strange sight Deva Path pulled the wreckage of Animal Path to her.

**"Chibaku Tensei"**

The corpse was sent flying into the woman's hands, and she placed it into the head's mouth which caused it to start chewing. Naruto didn't know what was happening but he knew it couldn't be good, so he charged Deva Path.

**"Shinra Tensei"**

**"Chibaku Tensei"**

Naruto crashed back into the lake, and resurfaced to see that Deva Path had Chojūro in her grasp "Human Path, finish this fool off."

"Certainly." Human Path said as he placed his hand on the top of the swordsman's head, and began to pull out his soul. But instead of removing it and killing him, he slammed back into the body multiple times until Chojūro dropped his sword and blacked out.

**"Soul Mixer"**

_'Damn this isn't good. I thought Itachi would be the biggest pain in the ass, but Kisame is even stronger now and Niiteme isn't a slouch either. Right now the main priority is taking out the Pein that made that head appear before we do anything else.' _

Before Naruto could follow through with his plan Naruto heard a girlish shriek from up in te air. He looked up to see Tobi had transported onto Fuu's back and had a tight grip on her wings "Let go of me you bastard!"

"Sorry 7, but if Tobi takes down a Jinchuriki for Pein-sama that will make Pein-sama really happy!" Tobi consoled the girl before sending a shockwave through his feet and sending the girl to the lake below.

**"Crash Wave"**

Luckily for Fuu, Darui caught her in midair and set her down with the others who had been defeated "I didn't see him do a hand seal just now. Does he have Devil Fruit powers?"

"You're right Lollipop-kun! Tobi ate the Crash-Crash Fruit so now I can blow things up like Artist-kun can!" Tobi said cheerfully before pointing towards Kuruma "Want to see what else I can do?"

Tobi moved his mask ever so slightly to reveal a single sharingan eye from the hole, and snapped fingers towards the sword at Naruto's side. This somehow caused Kuruma to go back out into his human form.

"Wait a minute what the hell! What are you doing Kuruma?" Naruto angrily asked.

"You think I know? That jackass just snapped his fingers and I went into my human form." Kuruma yelled back before noticing Chiyo staring intently at him. Her aged eyes piercing his very demonic soul. Before he could do anything else, Chiyo screamed in pure rage and attacked.

"WHITE FANG!"

"What the hell are you talking about lady?"

**"Crash Wave"**

Before Chiyo could even get close to the demon, Tobi jumped in between them and unleashed his Devil Fruit power. The attack both damaged her puppets and sent the old councilor collapsed onto the lake.

It was at this point Kuruma could get a good look at Tobi and scowled when he recognized him from 18 years ago. Tobi noticed this and spoke in his real voice "So you remember me now Ichigo-san? Well guess what Tobi's a bad boy!"

**"YOU'RE ONE OF THEM AREN'T YOU. THE ONE'S WHO TURNED ME INTO THIS MONSTER! YOUR DARE SHOW YOUR FACE TO ME AGAIN, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL KYUUBI NO KITSUNE FOR A SECOND TIME!" **Kurama screamed at the man in fury, but in his demon voice instead of the one used in his human form.

"So this freak also has a history with Kuruma? Who is this guy anyways?" Naruto asked aloud, to which Itachi answered while wielding off his mental unstable brother.

"Remember when me and Brother were sent to retrieve you and I mentioned our clan's remainder? That doesn't just include me and Sasuke; Faceless is also one of the final members of our clan, only surviving because he had already become a missing-nin before I killed my clan. Though he is an airhead, his power with the sharingan easily dwarfs mine and his power matches that of a lower Supernova." Itachi answered which only angered Sasuke even more a at the thought of someone else being stronger than him, while Naruto felt him self surge with a mix of fear and excitement.

This feeling faded when he noticed what Kuruma was doing "Kuruma no! This guy can use portals remember?!"

**"Biju Ball"**

**"Karui"**

By the time Naruto had gotten the warning out it was too late and Kuruma had fired the beam. Tobi saw this coming and opened a portal which reopened next to Kurotsuchi.

**"Earth Release: Shore Shield"**

The kunoichi made a large shield to block the attack, but it only cushioned part of the blow. Han caught his bodyguard before she could completely collapse and set her off to the side with the other fallen, before turning to glare at Tobi.

_Hey Naruto bro_

_I don't mean to be shrewd_

_But I think we might be completely screwed _

"His rapping talent sucks, but he's got a pretty good point. All these guys are like facing someone with Naruto or Gaara's strength but in groups. That mask guy is miles stronger than any of us, and we still haven't seen what that woman and the statue can do." Temari said looking at each chairman at least once.

"She actually ate some sort of paper Devil Fruit. Damnit I think I could take Niiteme's robots if it weren't for that chewing head!"

"I don't like our options either. We can't win anymore, but we can't escape and think of a plan with the information we've gotten since they won't let us. The way I see it there's only one option. Fight and die like a man!" Han said while unsheathing Kokuō before making an attempt on Tobi "If I'm going down, I'm not going to roll over and piss myself!"

**"Wind Shot"**

**"Crash Wave"**

Just as he expected, Tobi easily used his Devil Fruit power to knock Han back and defeat yet another opponent. What no one was expecting was for Darui to engage the masked man with his katana and jutsu.

**"Black Lightning"**

**"Amaterasu"**

"So Lollipop-kun has finally decided to join us? How much fun?"

"Like Cinderface said, he could get around Pein if he gets rid of Naraka Path, so all I have to do is beat your ass in while he does just that, and then we can take on the others. It's really kind of pathetic how you thought you could strong-arm us into surrender with a weakening wavelength, cause I play to win!"

"Thanks for the save Kumo-san. If you hadn't done that I would've ended up like Han. Now we have an actual chance at this again!" Naruto said as he went into a santoryu stance, and leered at the Six Paths who returned the glare sixfold.

Kisame simply chuckled as he watched the remainder prepare their weaponry and jutsu to fight back, with the exception of Sasuke who struggling to land a hit on Itachi "Now this just got interesting again. Looks like you'll be able to eat again Samehada!"

"Sorry Masked Man, but I'm afraid our victory is at-"

Darui was cut off from his lazy toned speech when a large stone fist came down and smacked him into the granite. Everyone turned in that direction to see Konan glaring at Tobi atop Shinju which rested on the opposite side of the valley "Honestly Faceless, if they had gone through with that plan we would have hosed and you just sat back and battled with that lazy fool. And when were you given permission to come down here?"

"Sorry Angel-sama, but Tobi was so excited to be able to fight he just couldn't contain himself!"

"I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore. Three Jinchuriki left to chose from, I wonder which one Pein would be the most satisfied with." Konan rapidly looked over B, Naruto, and Gaara before making a decision "Yes, you'll do nicely!"

**"Sealing Jutsu: Nine Phantom Dragons"**

* * *

About half an hour before the battle between the two groups another battle was reaching its climax. Hidden had just revealed his true form as an Ochichite but it wasn't exactly that simple. The leaf shinobi there struggled to figure out the meaning behind this new change in appearance "What the hell is going on here. Ochichite shouldn't be able to change their appearance like that!"

"Your right, I may be an Ochichite but that doesn't mean I can't eat a Devil Fruit. Human-Human Fruit: Model Samedi to be exact!" Hidan said with an even crazier grin on his face than before.

"You think we give a damn about your troublesome Devil Fruit power Akatsuki freak?" Shikamaru tossed a set of kunai while using their shadows to expand his range, but Hidan easily deflected them all.

**"Fire Release: Ash Burner"**

While Hidan was distracted with Shikamaru's attack, Asuma released a torrent of burning ashes from his mouth causing a large explosion where he stood. Strangely Kakuzu didn't seem very surprised by this and merely smirked at the attack. When the cinders cleared Kotetsu and Shikamaru felt their hearts drop as it wasn't Hidan burned by the attack, but Asuma.

"Hurts doesn't it Sarutobi? The main power of my Devil Fruit is Curse, so any damage you do to me will pass judgement on you instead." Hidan explained before breaking out in a giggling fit "But quite personally I enjoy the pain! Sweet burning pain! Well then, I think we should begin the ritual don't you?"

"No wonder this guy is an Ochichite he's absolutely insane!" Kotetsu said while arming his sword to attack, before being stopped by Shikamaru.

"Don't move a muscle Kotetsu. If we do anything to this guy it'll just fire right back onto Asuma-sensei!"

"Reaper, get on with this foolishness! I'm tired of sitting here, and I want to cash in this fool's head. Penn-sama and the others should be done soon anyways so we shouldn't drag this on."

"Aw come on Reaper I haven't been able to do this for a while!" Hidan said while flicking out a large black switchblade "And besides I'm just getting started with this asshole!"

Seeing the blade Asuma thought he was going to prepare for more battle, and began focusing more chakra into the knives around his hand. After a few more moments of waiting Asuma charged. But when Hidan saw this he stabbed his own leg causing him to fall over to the ground.

"Come on ugly I haven't even hit a vital spot yet! You can't just roll over and die now! There's so much more fun to be had with you! But then again I enjoy the pain of a vital being hit the most! The pain of a person's last moment of agony as they depart from this world is the greatest feeling I've ever felt! maybe I should go for there next!"

**"Shadow Stitching Jutsu"**

Before Hidan could get even close to any vital points Shikamaru unleashed another jutsu and grabbed the chairman unexpectedly. Things got even worse for him when he felt the strands pull him away from the circle on which he stood "You keep bringing up some troublesome ritual, and I bet you it and that circle on the ground are apart of your Devil Fruit power. So if I get you off it you won't be able to touch a single hair on Asuma-sensei's head."

"Nice job figuring it all out gaki. But don't think for a moment I'm just going to let you keep him like that!" Kakis said while preparing his attack with wires coming from his arms.

**"Conch Shell Mace Hammer"**

Kotetsu interfered with Kakuzu before he could attack Shikamaru, breaking his neck and causing a large amount of blood to spill from his head. But even after an attack like that Kakuzu continued to move "Thanks a lot jackass, you just cost me one of my hearts! Now I need to go find another one!"

"Wait a minute! You're immortal too?"

"Sort of but only if I have hearts. You see I ate the Kardio-Kardio Fruit so now I can remove the hearts of any enemy I kill and add them to a collection, even taking their Elemental releases and Devil Fruit powers. How else do you think I've lived this long?"

"Cut the theatrics Kakuzu! That shadow gaki is getting on my nerves so just kill the little bastard already so we can move on with our day!" Hidan screamed at his partner while desperately trying to pull free of the shadow bonds holding him.

"Too late though, cause now I'm back up and ready to go. Thanks for the save Shikamaru!" Asuma trudged over with a smirk on his face, focusing so much energy into his trench knives that it began to resemble at cutlass.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Kakuzu this is not time to just stand there! Do something before he messes me up even more!"

"Calm down, even if he does do something drastic I can just sew you right back up!"

"Easy for you to say I don't want to get my head sliced off twice in one day!"

**"Lightning Release: Fake Darkness"**

After that much pressing from his partner, Kakuzu gave in and a large blast of black lightning shot out from his chest and into Asuma causing the bearded man to fall down yet again.

"Asuma-sensei!"

"Should be worrying about yourself right about now kid." Kakuzu turned to Shikamaru and proceeded to attack him, forcing the chunk to release his grip on Hidan.

**"Earth Release: Earth Spear"**

"No way! These guys are way too strong. I wish Izumo were still alive, he'd know what to do." Kotetsu said, paralyzed with fear at his enemies.

"Too bad, you were doing so well kiddies. But I guess that doesn't really matter much anymore doesn't it. It's time for you to experience the ultimate pain Sarutobi, time to experience death!" Hidan said while walking back onto his circle, and preparing to stab himself through the heart.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" Shikamaru tried to run up and stop Hidan despite his severe exhaustion from the battle. But it was to no avail as Hidan had already stabbed himself through the heart, causing the same fatal injury to Asuma as he lie on the ground, coughing up even more blood than before.

"ASUMA-SENSEI!"

The moment he saw his victim coughing up blood Hidan began laughing even louder than he did before "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! JASHIN WOLL BE EVER SO HAPPY BY THIS SACRIFICE! THAT SWEET FEELING OF DEATH'S SHADOW ENGULFING A PERSON COMPLETELY, OH HOW MUCH I LOVE THAT FEELING!"

"Cool your jets Reaper, he's a dead man anyways so how does a sacrifice. We should have captured a Jinchuriki by now so this entire fight is meaningless now. Let's get the hell out of here before reinforcements arrive!" Kakuzu ordered his partner. Though he wanted to sacrifice more, Hidan obeyed and turned back to his human form.

As they left they walked past a grieving Shikamaru, who Kakuzu whispered to "We'll be back for his body in about five days, so make sure it's embalmed nice and good. It will get a higher sell price that way!"

"You bastard!" Shikamaru turned to attack Kakuzu again,but by the time he had they were both already gone. The only thing he could do now was angrily strike the ground and scream in rage as his teacher lie dying nearby. His mood only worsened when reinforcements arrived. Reinforcements that included Ino and Chouji.

"Shikamaru, what's going here? What happened to Asuma-sensei?" Chouji ran up to his friend, looking incredibly afraid for Asuma's life.

"The chairman that were spotted were just to strong. They screwed up Captain Asuma pretty badly especially the guy called Reaper. And they've both got Devil Fruit powers."

"Well what they hell are you waiting for?" Call some medic-nins from Division 4 and get him some help." Ino ordered angrily, but under her anger she was just as afraid as the others.

"Don't bother I'm screwed anyways. Wish I brought a pack with me today, it would be nice to have one last smoke before I die. Told Kakashi those things wouldn't be the one to kill me." Asuma chuckled before he coughed up even more blood.

"You can't just give up like this Asuma-sensei, I won't let you!" Chouji tried to reason with him, but was pulled back by a now standing Shikamaru.

"Ino, Chouji. We need to listen to Asuma-sensei's words right now, they'll be his last."

"Ino, you're pretty headstrong but you're good at watching over others, and after getting rid of that fangirl issue you've only gotten stronger. The boys are pretty lazy and clumsy so make sure they don't screw up. And don't lose to anyone, especially not Sakura. That would be embarrassing for the both of us. Chouji, your without a doubt one of the deepest and kindest people I've ever met in my life. I know that in time you'll become a stronger ninja than anyone else. Just stay confident, and try to lose a few pounds on the way. Shikamaru, you're one of the best rookies to ever come out of this village. With that sharp mind of yours you could easily become Hokage some day. But you'd probably find it to be a big drag anyways. I can't believe I died without beating you at shogi once. But I guess that's the least of my regrets in life. I'm counting on you kids to take the Akatsuki down before they do anything else."

Asuma coughed up even more blood at that instant before using what little strength he had left to dig around his pockets until he found a pack of cigarettes, placed one in his mouth, and lit it "Huh guess I did have a pack after all."

"ASUMA-SENSEI!"

With those last words Asuma Sarutobi's eyes dulled and the cigarette dropped from his mouth as he departed from this world. While Ino and Chouji screamed his name in anguish, Shikamaru walked away and looked up to the sky only seeing one thing in his pained voice.

"What a drag."

* * *

**"Cat-Cat Fruit: Model Leopard"**

Kurenai and Shino watched as the Akatsuki chairman went into his hybrid zoan form, becoming much larger and letting his curly black hair down from its ponytail. Deciding to level the playing field, Kurenai went into her own hybrid form and swept around Lucci to deliver a hard kick to his side. However he defended with Tekkai and swept the jounin away.

Lucci then shifted in front of Shino and caught the Aburame clan heir by wrapping him around his leopard tail. Shino struggled to get free, using any offensive bugs he could think of to escape the grasp of the ex-CP9 agent. But Lucci was still in Tekkai and got into a familiar stance with his claws "I've gotten much stronger in the two years since my defeat. Now I can move while using Tekkai!"

**"Sai Dai Rin: Rokugan"**

A large force blasted through Lucci's two aligned claws and straight through Shino's body. The large quantity of insects killed during the attack dripped in mass quantity from Shino's sleeves and Shino himself fell to ground, coughing up blood and completely unable to move.

With one of his opponents down for the count, Lucci stood by and began to look around for Kurenai. He quickly realized where the jounin was hiding when he saw a pair of red cat-like eyes hiding in the shadows with the aid of black fur. When he saw this Lucci went full on leopard and attempted to tackle Kurenai, who dodged and scratched his face with her claws.

For a little while the fight turned into one you'd typically see amongst wildcats with many attempts for a blow to the throat. This eventually faded and they went right back to fighting in their respective hybrid forms. However the monotony of the fight was beginning to get a bit old for Lucci, so he decided to go into his endgame.

Kurenai was able to tell this was the case _'So he's trying to speed up his attacks now is he? That doesn't matter to me, I'll just camouflage myself with a genjutsu and wait until I have all my chakra back. Then I can finish him o-"_

Things took a bad turn when Kurenai felt herself get dizzy and nauseous even beginning to slip out of her Devil Fruit power _'What's going on? Have I run out of chakra and energy all ready. And he hasn't even broken a sweat yet! Is this guy really that strong?"_

**"Sai Dai Rin: Rokugan"**

Once Kurenai slipped out of her panther hybrid, it only took a few moments for Lucci to wrap his tail around her. When another shockwave was unleashed through the leopard man's claws, Kurenai collapsed completely defeated.

Sadly Kiba and Akamaru weren't faring much better against Shou Tucker's White Castle Devil. Early on in the new battle against the mad scientist, Kiba was already forced to give Akamaru the red food pill. This made their dual attacks all the stronger against Tucker.

**"Gatsuuga"**

**"Turtle Shell Shield"**

True to it's name a large turtle shell formed around his arms, and blocked Shou from the spinning torrent of claws. When Kiba saw the smug and sadistic grin on Shou's face that only made Kiba angrier, so against his better judgement he attacked Tucker with only a kunai and his determination. This wasn't nearly enough as the serial killer smacked the weapon from his hand and delivered a sharp blow to his stomach.

**"Bear Claw"**

Kiba was knocked back where Akamaru waited, giving a heavily judgmental and worried look. This obviously angered Kiba who retorted to his best friend's nonexistent words "Don't give me that look Akamaru! That bastard needs to pay for what he did to Nina and Izumo!"

"Still mourning over that old experiment of mine Inuzuka-san? That useless piece of trash is old news in my book, the experiments I've made as part of the Akatsuki far surpass that travesty. But if she means that much to you don't worry. You'll be seeing her again in Hell real soon." Shou Tucker snidely remarked while just standing there, as if waiting for his opponents to attack. This made Akamaru lose any limits he had with Tucker and linedup with Kiba. The chunin immediately knew what this meant and grinned as he focused chakra into his hand.

**"Wind Release: Sonic Bark Cannon"**

The blast of the magnified howl from Akamaru was something Shou wasn't expecting in the slightest, so he was knocked back into another building by the blow. Upon rising the scowl on his face showed he was not happy about this in the slightest "Why you little brat! You'll pay for daring to harm a genius like me!"

"Bring it on you four eyed jerk. I'll completely rip you to shreds!"

**"Kage Bushin"**

**"Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Cerberus Wolf"**

"So you're using that attack against me now Inuzuka-san? That doesn't matter in the slightest you know? I've seen the records from your battle with Cinderface, so I know that you have very little time in that form before you run out of cha-"

**"Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Tail Chasing Rotating Fang"**

Tucker didn't have nearly the reaction time Naruto did when he went up against the beast, and was forced to catch a razor sharp disk of fangs coming towards him. Even with gorilla like strength, Tucker could only hold the attack off for a few seconds before it slammed into his abdomen and knocked him into the buildings behind him, shredding his skin along the way.

While Shou Tucker was both angry and confused by this, Kiba gave him no time to react or counter. The mad doctor quickly found himself on the receiving end of a flurry of scratches and punches by the three headed wolf. It took at least two minutes of this relentless attack before Tucker could get another opening to attack.

**"Gorilla Mallet"**

The punch to one of his heads didn't seem to bother Kiba in the slightest, as he responded almost instantly with another bite to his enemy's chest and throwing him into the remains of another building nearby. Before the former captain had any time to even tell where he had been thrown Kiba laid waste to him again.

**"Beast Mimicry Transformation Combo: Fang over Fang Cubed"**

A cloud of smoke masked what was happening in the battle, but one could probably tell from the horrific screams of agony coming from inside. When the smoke cleared the Cerberus stood over a bloody and beaten Shou Tucker who was barely able to keep him self in the chimera form. He looked up and gaped in pure terror when he saw that Kiba hadn't even breaker a sweat.

"How the hell do you still have enough chakra to stay in that form anyways?"

**"You think I didn't do any training in the three months since I lost Naruto. I've been training like crazy so I can challenge him to a rematch, and now I can stay in this form for as long as I want, and I even have one more jutsu I came up with since then. But that doesn't matter since you're not going to live to ****see it."**

As Kiba raised his claws to prepare the killing blow Shou Tucker began to cower with fear of his impending death, and began to desperately bargain with his opponent "No don't do this Inuzuka-san! I'm sorry please spare me! I'm the only one who knows how to change Isaribi back to a normal human, seriously I'm not lying! I can bring anybody you want back to life! Izumo! Ibiki! The Yondaime! Nina! Your otou-sama! Please just spare me I'm begging you!"

**"Rankyaku"**

Right before Kiba could finish Shou off, Lucci intervened and separated Kiba and Akamaru sending both of them bleeding to the pavement "Honestly Genius; you've resorted to pathetically begging for your life. Your even more like Spandam than I originally thought."

"Shut the hell up Justice, in the end I'm alive and that's what really matters to me." Shou gloated before going up to the injured Kiba and brutally kicking "Even after all that your still going to die by my hand. What's the matter Inuzuka-san, aren't you going to rip me to shreds? Or are you just going to lie there and rot?"

All while this was going on, Hinata was watching and getting angrier with every kick Tucker delivered to her teammate. She took out her anger on the last of the human chimeras the pair had unleashed before turning to face them, though neither of them seemed to notice her thick killing intent as they were more preoccupied with Kiba.

_'You made a big mistake forgetting I was here. I'm just as strong as my teammates and I won't stand for you killing one of them right in front of m. I should probably go for the CP9 one first so he-'_

**"Rokushiki Ogi: Rokugan"**

Unfortunately for the Hyuuga heiress, it appears Lucci was only pretending not to notice her killing intent and blasted her with his own attack when she got close enough. Hinata began to fight her exhaustion to get back up, but was forced to stop when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed up against the back of her head. The gun of an Akatsuki agent.

"Don't move girly, you won't be as pretty with a bullet through your skull."

"Isn't she the Hyuuga with the Shichibukai who killed Ikō? Let's kill her for revenge!

"Are you nuts? There's no way I want to be on that monster's bad side!"

"She was the last threat we have to deal with for now, so we should have time to kill at least one of them. Finish off the Inuzuka before someone from Division 1 is sent here." Lucci said as he turned around, only to get a punch to the back by an angry Kiba. Though he easily deflected the punch with Tekkai, he still turned his head to see the cause.

"Leopard-teme you interrupted our fight! And besides we're not finished yet. You ready Akamaru?" Kiba turned to his rising partner who responded with a hearty bark. Both of them focused a large amount of Chakra, before Akamaru transformed into Kiba. It was then they did hand signs simultaneously ending with a flash of smoke.

**"Man-Beast Fusion"**

When the smoke cleared a mink like Kiba stood in place, with white and brown fur covering his entire body with sharp wolf teeth razor sharp fusion was much stronger than the original as well. Kiba growled in his fusion with a deep and scratchy voice "This is my final attack, and with it I'm going to send you to Hell!"

"Oh really Inuzuka-san? I seriously doubt that you'll really be able to touch me right about now." Shou Tucker arrogantly while pushing up his glasses. This lack of fear infuriated Kiba to a high degree, causing him to charge at a speed almost undetectable by the human eye.

**"Shinigami Kiba"**

**"Tetraodontidae"**

After a few moments of waiting for a response, Lucci smirked when he saw Kiba's muscles start to tighten and the fusion release leaving Akamaru to tired to move, and Kiba completely paralyzed "The deadly fugu fish. While it's eaten in many parts of the world with careful preparation, it also has deadly toxin than can kill a person. I only gave you a high enough dosage to paralyze you. That's not the way I want you to die!"

With a sadistic smirk Tucker walked up to Kiba and flipped him over to show him the sky above. Once that was done Tucker began climbing the wreckage, spinning around the broken buildings and poles of the street. Once enough momentum was built up by Shou Tucker, he launched himself up in the air, before beginning his descent onto Kiba down below. Looking at the world around him one final time, Kiba shut his eyes and waited for the end, with only a few words left.

"Kurenai-sensei, Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, Isaribi-chan, I'm sorry please don't die."

**"Mammoth Smash!"**

_Kiba woke up in complete darkness. He looked around wondering what had happened before regaining memories of what had happened. He growled at the memory before noticing a small flame in the distance. Wondering what it was Kiba ran up to get a closer look, before coming to a campfire with a man sitting at it._

_The man had long and unkempt dark brown hair, with piercing dog like eyes and sharp teeth, with a small halo above his head. The clear marker of this man's identity however, were the red claw marks on the sides of his face. When Kiba realized who this man was he cried both tears and joy and sadness at once "Otou-san?"_

_"Damn straight g__aki. Now quite your crying like a baby and sit down!" The spirit ordered his son, who quickly followed the order and sat on one of the logs nearby the fire "So you died in battle like your old man eh? To be perfectly honest I've never been more proud, but you could have picked a better opponent to go out against."_

_"I can believe that four eyed jackass killed me! And what's worse is that everyone I care the most was watching when it happened, besides Okasan and Neechan. And I never got to fight Naruto again! Dammit being dead sucks!"_

_"Well regrets are something we all have when we come here. How do you think I felt getting squashed like a bug by ol' Ichigo? But that doesn't really matter right now, Tucker ain't going to last a month after all the shit he's pulled. All your friends are going to be hunting him like a wolf hunts a boar."_

_"I wouldn't want him to go out any other way. Especially if its Neechan or Isaribi-chan who does the bastard in. Anyone but Naruto is fine, I would never live it down if I had to have him avenge my death."_

_"I think we've wasted enough time already. The gate between worlds will be closing soon, and besides there's somebody who's been wanting to see you again."_

_Kiba wondered what his father meant by this before a pair of familiar tiny hands grabbed onto his leg "Kiba-niisan! This funny man who looks like you said you were going to come here someday and he was right! Alexander has been wanting to see you too!"_

_When he saw the little girl again a small smile graced Kiba's face, as his tears became even more plentiful and a halo formed above his bushy hair "Well what are we waiting for gaki? Let's get going!"_

Unfortunately the scene that just occurred in the afterlife was not visible in the world of the living. All that anyone could see was Shou Tucker slamming himself hard into Kiba's chest, crushing his spine and killing him instantly. Shou Tucker was about to mock the corpse of his fallen opponent only to be knocked back by a heavy and painful torrent of water.

**"Water Release: Giant Bullet Stream"**

"TUCKER YOU BASTARD!"

Isaribi had finally regained the ability to move, along with the blood she has lost against Shou earlier. But that couldn't do anything now as Kiba had already been killed by him. The only thing she could do now was scream in rage as she forced him back with all the energy she had left.

"Don't just stand there you imbeciles! Kill this bitch!" Shou screamed at the agents. They began to move before collapsing over dead as doornails giving Hinata the chance to move. The one responsible for this was Shino, who's sunglasses were missing to reveal a frightening rage in his pointed eyes.

"The flies I just implanted on you were the incredibly deadly Tsetse Fly from the Grand Line island Little Garden. These flies hold the disease referred to as sleeping sickness by those who know of it, which is transferred by a single bite. The sickness usually takes months to have any affect, but I had them speed up the process for your convenience."

It was by this point Lucci was preparing to intervene by killing the rest of them. But before he could do much of anything, a rapier blocked the path of his shigan. The holder of this sword was an odd looking man, banned from every single restaurant in Konoha "Wild is the wind baby! Under the authority of her majesty Mizukage, I hereby place you and all of your cohorts under immediate arrest Justice, Rob Lucci!"

"Great out of all the accursed shinobi to appear on this island it has to be you. I would be a complete fool to try and defeat you when you're on the same level Mihawk."

"Of course I am on the same level! I am Dracule Maglako, The Magnificent, Short in Stature, Tall in Power, Narrow of Purpose, and Wide in Vision" Maglako said while adjusting his sunglasses, only to realize that during his speech both Lucci and Tucker had escaped. However none of the agents had, so the swordsman glared at them evilly while readying his sword. Just when they thought it couldn't get any worse Hinata got up, and needless to see was very unhappy about being able to do nothing while her friend was killed.

**"Hop of the Whispering Duckling: Honey Muffin Blitz"**

**"Eight Trigrams: 32 Palms"**

Within about five minutes all the Akatsuki agents that had been commissioned there were had either been killed or knocked unconscious by the attack by both Hinata and Maglako. It had taken five more minutes for Division 4 medic-nin to arrive and take Kurenai and a whimpering Akamaru to the hospital. But the only thing that could be done for Kiba was placing a cloth over his pale face and taking him off for autopsy.

All the while his teammates and lover watched as they took the body away. Hinata tried with no avail to hold back her tears, while Shino stood silently seething with absolute rage. The one most affected though was Isaribi, with the girl appearing to be absolutely lifeless as a result of Kiba's murder. Only three words could leave her mouth by this point.

"Kiba-kun, I love you."

* * *

**"Sealing Jutsu: Nine Phantom Dragons"**

When Konan activated the jutsu, the statue began glow drawing energy from all Akatsuki chairman no matter where they were at the moment. It was then when Shou Tucker's modifications really began to show as the statues limbs moved to point itself in the very direction of a certain individual. But it wasn't a jinchuriki at all. It was Sasuke Uchiha.

Everyone even Konan herself seemed shocked by this sudden change in direction. The only one's who weren't were Tobi and oddly Sasuke Uchiha himself. Before Konan could attempt to stop the apparently malfunctioning Demonic Outer Path Statue it fired.

**"Substitution Jutsu"**

A flash of smoke appeared and it wasn't Sasuke but Gaara getting the life sucked out of him. The sand shield was completely blown away by the force of the youkai, and even Shukaku itself could not stop the onslaught. After a few more minutes of this Gaara collapsed into the lake, dead as a doornail.

The reactions to this were varied amongst those remaining. B was incredibly shocked and confused at what just occurred, Temari seemed to be on the verge of breaking down, and Naruto was down right enraged. The only one who seemed happy at all by this turn of events was Sasuke, even laughing out loud.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What a pathetic fool thinking he was safe like that. But it's not like it matters, even as Kazekage he's just trash born into this world to be used by the true elite like me!"

**"Sickle Weasel"**

Temari felt herself give way to a blazing rage the very moment she regained any idea of what was going on and attacked the cackling Uchiha with what would have been a fatal blow if not for his Devil Fruits. Not that anyone was complaining, as by this point even the Akatsuki were outright disgusted with Sasuke's actions.

The royally pissed off Suna kunoichi followed up her attack with a hard blow to the head with her fan, though once again it did absolutely nothing to affect Sasuke. He maneuvered past her to make an attempt at Naruto who easily blocked with Kuruma, letting his Iron Kitsune Armor flake off as he defended.

"You dirty bastard! You killed a Kage just to save your own worthless ass. Just when I think you can't sink any lower you proceed to do it in a snap!"

"I don't know what your complaining about, his life was worthless compared to mine. He should be honored to give it up to save an elite like me! It's not like it would have mattered, I was assigned by Danzō and Orochimaru to kill one of you demon freaks. In fact it was originally going to be you!"

"Oh really? Now tell me, why did you change your mind just like that?" Naruto asked as he knocked the Uchiha back into the side of the valley, where he climbed onto the statue of Madara Uchiha.

"Simple. Now that I've chosen that bakame instead I can simply frame you for his murder. The courts of Konoha will side with me no matter what the evidence says and you'll be declared guilty and executed. Then I'll have the Council engage me to Hinata and ask the Gorosei to let me fill your spot as a Shichibukai. And with your biju and sword, I'm going to be the one who becomes Homage and the World's Greatest Swordsman, which I can use to become stronger and kill Itachi! And with the help of your sexy bitch, the entire South Blue will become the playground of the Uchiha clan!"

"You've really thought everything out haven't you? Well I've got bad news for you teme, there's one more obstacle you forgot about. ME!" Naruto growled through his teeth as he jumped onto the statue of Hashirama Senju, which he proceeded to jab Kuruma into "You want my sword teme? Well then come and get it!"

* * *

**(A/N):**

**...**

**...**

**...**

**(throws rock on stage)**

**(rock gets blasted to bits by turret guns till they run out)**

**Hah I knew you would try that!**

**(Knife thrown)**

**Hm well, while I deal with the kitchen knife lodged him my abdomen, I'll just explain something right away. Gaara will not be dead for very long. If Kishimoto can revive characters then so can I.**

**Maya: What about Asuma and Kiba? Are they going to be revived to?**

**Unfortunately no they aren't going to be so lucky. If I just revived every character I killed off than no death would have any real meaning to it. No one liked it when Pell survived with no explanation (one of the few issues I really have with One Piece) and... actually everybody liked it when Sabo and Kakashi came back... Well that's something to think about for later. If it makes you feel any better than I was just as depressed as you while writing it. So much so that I was dreading this chapter for a while. And don't worry just as Kiba's father said, Tucker's not going to last the rest of the arc. And I am going to enjoy every last moment of him groveling in death :)**

**And on another note, the epic battle of Naruto vs Sasuke will be happening next chapter. No interruptions, no rescues, this will be a full on brawl between the two that I've had planned for a good long time now. But can Naruto beat his rival using only Nitoryu? Why would he do that? And which Akatsuki chairman will fall first? I know the answer already but you'll just have to wait. **

**Meanwhile I'm switching hands back to Voodoo's Disciple for a short bit, so if your a fan of horror be sure to give a look. Now enough about this loser's stories. **

**I hope you've had yourself a Happy Easter. Now I'm going to go get this knife removed before I pass out from blood loss.**

**Credits to njhnaruto for the Crash-Crash Fruit**

**Next Chapter: The Demon in the Stone**

**. . .**


	25. The Demon in the Stone

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then Jack's defeat would have been- oh who the hell am I kidding that scene was hilarious!**

**Wheatley: Are you talking about the scene with the elephant island smashing his face in? And then he probably drowns because of his Devil Fruit powers?**

**Skillet: Yes Wheatley. I was trying not to bring that up because of spoilers!**

**Wheatley: Sorry I guess I shouldn't have done that. Next I'll say is that the real villain of Farewell, My Turnabout is-**

**Skillet: NO!**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki **

**Chapter 23: The Demon in the Stone**

* * *

"You want my sword teme? Well then come and get it!" Naruto screamed at his rival from across the valley, while jabbing Kuruma into the stone head of Hashirama Senju.

When he heard Naruto challenge him in the bold and serious tone Sasuke broke out laughing "You honestly think you can beat me. You're just an orphaned dobe who got a six year lucky streak with a senile old fox. But if you want me to kick your ass, I can show you how superior I am."

"Let's dance teme! And by that I mean let's try to kill each other!" Naruto screamed in rage at his archenemy before charging off the statue and into air, unleashing another flurry of slashes from the two swords he kept armed in his hands.

**"Karasuma Gari!"**

"Are you even dumber than I thought you were dobe? My Devil Fruit power is a logia! Or did your simple brain just for-" Sasuke was cut off when one of the slashes caused a huge gash in his body, which wasn't just absorbed by his Devil Fruit power, but caused blood to leak from the wound.

Naruto saw the fear and confusion on his opponents face as he landed back down onto the water and smirked "You don't think I spent the last two months picking my ass did you? I learned Busoshoku Haki specifically for this moment!"

Sasuke growled in anger in frustration at the new advantage Naruto had over him before melding his hands into a large golden machine gun, which fired razor sharp coins at a rapid rate, forcing Naruto to deflect at a speed even faster then they were being shot at him.

**"Razor Coin Gattling"**

"I think that it's time you and Faceless head back to Ame, Angel-sama. A biju has been captured so you have no more reason to be here." Itachi told his superior as he watched the hateful duel unfolding in front of him.

"That is a good point, but why are you staying here then?"

"I have a personal connection to this fight Angel-sama, though I'm not a direct participant as of now. The outcome of this would be in my direct interest." Itachi explained. While Konan tried to argue, she could find no reason and shushined away with Tobi, Kisame, and the Demonic Outer Path statue in tow. Being the only Akatsuki member left on the battlefield, Itachi was left to his own devices while watching Naruto deflect the projectiles being fired on him.

_'I would be shocked if this were to be a one sided fight in either direction. Sasuke is an Uchiha prodigy with a lot of potential and strong techniques, though I can't say he's earned a lot of them. But Naruto is a Level 35 swordsman, and if his bounty weren't frozen by his status as a Shichibukai it would be at least 300,000,000 beris right now. Right now this is anyone's guess who'll come out on top.'_

Meanwhile Temari and Killer B were standing by and watching the fight as well. Well B was anyway, while Temari was arming her fan up with intent to attack the Uchiha herself while he was preoccupied. Before she could strike though, B stopped her with one of his Gyuki swords.

"Aneki believe me when I say that this is one fight you don't want to get involved in."

"What you think I'm just going to stand here and watch helplessly from the sidelines! I don't think so!" Temari angrily protested to the older man only for him to once again speak. Or rather rap.

_Cinderface has already got this taken care of!_

_Like you, he's chosen the hawk instead of the dove!_

_But these tensions have been rising for six years straight_

_And their glorious battle is on this date!_

_They're going to have their final fight eventually!_

_No use halting this inevitability!_

_And besides Gaara's not out of the woods yet!_

_We have the power to rebuild him and don't you forget!_

"Alright, alright I'll stay put if you just stop rapping. But if Naruto loses then I'm taking the Uchiha bastard's head off myself!" Temari informed B who nodded in agreement to this deal.

But Naruto still wasn't even close to losing this fight, still deflecting the golden bullets at a rate faster than Sasuke could come close to firing them, angering the Uchiha even more than before. After this continued for about 25 more seconds, Sasuke had enough and created a golden staff from the machine gun, unleashing another attack in the form of a large tornado.

**"Wind Style: Golden Twister"**

Unfortunately Naruto was still dealing with the remaining bullets and had no time to move out of the way. He was swept by the tornado and knocked right back into the Shodaime statue.

**_"Kid what the hell are doing. You could have just absorbed the attack if you had me armed, get me out of this statue and fight for real!"_**

"No can do Kuruma. That teme thinks the only reason I've gotten so strong over the years is because of my demon weapon. By using my other two swords only it will prove him wrong." Naruto said to his tenant with a grin on his face, watching Sasuke charge up to him with the staff. Naruto then sheathed Yamakawa-o and prepared his next attack.

**"God's Staff"**

**"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson"**

To Sasuke's surprise Naruto had completely cut through his staff no problem, giving him another opening to attack from behind as Naruto fell back into the water.

**"Sanjuroku Pound Ho"**

The arrogant ninja was barely able to focus chakra back into his feet to stand on the water and stop himself from drowning. He glared at Naruto even more intensely then before when he rose up from the water "How the hell could a dobe like you cut through my weapon like a stick of butter?"

"Maybe it's because you tried to attack me with pure gold, which is one of the softest metals in the world. You know for a so called genius you sure are stupid." Naruto insulted his rival, who was very angry at being humiliated again.

**"Water Release: Giant Vortex"**

While Naruto was still in the water, Sasuke took the opportunity to trap him inside a whirlpool. But before could kill the swordsman, Naruto negated the waterfall with a trick of his one and escaped into the air.

**"Tatsu Maki"**

"Word to the wise teme. Never put yourself in a bad position unless you have a quick way out." Naruto yelled down before attacking Sasuke again in midair.

**"Karasuma Garai"**

When he saw the shower of slashes fly towards him again, Sasuke put multiple layers of of golden domes over him to cushion the blow. While Naruto's attack was strong enough to slice away a majority of the barriers protecting the Uchiha, two or three still remained. Sasuke used this to make a large cannon mouth protruding from the remaining domes, which he thickened immensely.

**"Aurum Tank Cannon"**

Naruto could tell that it was a large cannon and prepared to slice the large golden ball flying him half. However what he wasn't expecting was for a large wave of molten gold to come spilling out from the ball once it was sliced in half, burning his skin. Once he was finished eating the metal off his flesh, Naruto tried his hardest to ignore his burns.

However with each firing the dangerously hot balls of gold became harder and harder to avoid. The swordsman gave himself enough time look at the tank to see Sasuke's sharingan eyes peeking from two holes in its side before going back to dodging.

"There's no use running from my attacks dobe! My sharingan will just follow your movements and I'll know exactly what you're going to do next!" Sasuke gloated from inside his shield which gave Naruto an idea of how to counterattack.

_'That teme is tracking my movements, but he can't tell the intentions I have behind them. And he has to keep firing on me for his attack to work, so even if I stand still he'll still try to kill me. All I have to do then is fire on that thing's weak spot before one of those gold balls can get close to me.'_

Once another molten ball splattered against the wall of the valley behind him, Naruto came to a screeching stop and prepared to attack, aiming carefully at the tank's weak spot. Sasuke grinned when he saw his target do this, thinking he could easily win in this position and fired. However Naruto sliced through his golden projectile long before it came close to him.

**"Nanajuni Pound Ho" **

After easily slicing through the bomb causing its insides to drip rapidly into the lake below, the slash went straight into the mouth of the cannon, causing its shell to start cracking. A few moments later each barrier was blown to bits by the force of the attack leaving a bleeding and pissed off Sasuke in the center, his Curse Mark flaring even brighter than before.

"You really should have made the opening a bit smaller. Even for the mouth of a cannon that was a pretty easy target. As much as you value that Rubbish-Rubbish Fruit power of your's, it's not really doing much against me" Naruto mocked the Uchiha again, who was getting angrier with every passing moment.

"It's the Riches-Riches Fruit you dobe trash!"

"Like I care; still not doing much to stop me now is it? And if I'm such trash than how come you're the one losing to me?" Naruto riled up Sasuke even more.

This finally pushed Sasuke past his limit causing his sanity to wear down even further as he gave out a mad scream which echoed throughout the continental island. As anger and madness slowly over took him the Curse Mark spread across his body, turning his skin a pale purple, with a star like mark stretching out on his nose. The whites of his eyes turned a dark shade of black and his hair grew long and bushy, turning purple as well. He even grew large bat like wings out from his back.

"So you've let the madness resting deep inside you take over otouto. I wonder if that will be enough for your to win this fight." Itachi muttered to himself as he watched his younger brother transform.

Temari watched with equal interest to the transformation in front of her while B loaded the injured from the previous battle into the woods with Gyuki's help "So this is the power of Ochichite chakra. Even so I've never heard of an artificial one being made before."

"That hickey of yours actually has a purpose aside from acting like a Chia pet for your skin? I'm pretty shocked that's the case but at least your actually fighting me seriously now." Naruto said as he armed his swords for any attack Sasuke might make against him.

"Like I'd ever use my full strength against a loser like you Naruto. I'm just trying something a little different is all. But I guess killing you with the power of one of the three sannin is more than a dobe like you deserves." Sasuke said chuckling at his opponent with an evil leer.

"It's a good thing there are this many clouds out otherwise you'd probably be sparkling right now Cullen-teme." Naruto said before Sasuke charged at a surprising speed and punched him across the jaw. Before Naruto could recover from the blow Sasuke flew behind him and kicked him upwards into the air.

When Naruto noticed the artificial Ochichite was still shadowing him from up in the air, he bitterly called him out "I recognize this technique and this speed. I'm guessing you didn't ask Gai-senpai about using this. You've got some serious balls ripping off from a captain."

"Like that spandex wearing freak is really strong enough to have the rank of captain. Judging from his own students his techniques should go to an elite instead of trash like him." Sasuke claimed before kicking Naruto back into the lake below, where he was waiting with another copied move.

**"Lion Combo"**

**"Chidori"**

Through the pain of being impaled and shocked at the same time Naruto growled at the Uchiha holding him up "Teme. Zabuza, Gai, and now Kakashi. Is there no one you won't rip off!"

"You honestly think I got this technique from Kakashi. The only thing he deserved to do was rot in hell for not just letting you get yourself killed on the Grand Line. Fū was the one who figured out his secrets and taught me everything about them."

"Oh, then that makes getting out of this a lot easier." Naruto said before unsheathing the Yamakawa-o and stabbing into Sasuke's arm.

The Uchiha pulled his arm back down as he screamed in pain, giving Naruto a chance to free himself and make another attack with both of his swords.

**"Sai Kuru"**

Naruto smirked as he cut into his opponent and he turned to make another attack on the Uchiha. However he had to dodge again when Sasuke unleashed his own counterattack in the form in the form of thousands of lightning needles flying at him which he was forced to deflect.

**"Chidori Senbon"**

Because of the strengthened chakra from Sasuke's Curse Mark, the senbon became that much harder to deflect and dodge, even with Busoshoku Haki. Despite the difficulty Naruto managed to blow away all of the needles made by the attack, but had to use his swords to guard against another attack.

**"Chidori Sharp Spear"**

"I think I preferred your Devil Fruit power more. At least you were slightly more original then." Naruto continued to mocked his rival despite being pushed back by the large pillar of lightning being fired at him "But I think it's time I take back the offensive on the fight!"

"Sorry dobe but I'm not going to give you that chance!" Sasuke yelled as he pointed his finger up, aiming for Naruto's head. This failed when Naruto crouched down before his forehead could pierced and made another attack while Sasuke lowered his own in an attempt to slice the blond swordsman in half vertically.

**"Nigiri: Hirameki"**

Naruto jumped into the air after firing another slash at Sasuke, cutting into his rival and landing on the wall of the valley. Itachi followed suit onto the other side when he realized what Sasuke was doing. Unfortunately for Sasuke he forgot he was standing on the lake when he pointed down, inadvertently shocking himself in the process.

The swordsman jumped back onto the lake and sheathed the Yamakawa-o again, preparing to continue with some more Ittoryu. But before he could attack, Sasuke pulled out a summoning scroll from his pocket. What came from the scroll both shocked and angered Naruto. A chokutō sword.

"The Sword of Kusangi. It's another version of the sword wielded by Orochimaru but it's lighter and quicker, perfectly suited for a ninja like me. And since I've been watching you this while fight I now know the perfect way to kill you. With the technique of your beloved brother!" Sasuke taunted him before flying towards his opponent with the sword.

**"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson"**

To his surprise, despite the velocity of his flight Naruto was easily able to block the attack with the Shodai Kitetsu. Sasuke was about angrily attack again in response to this failure, but Naruto looked up at him to reveal his eyes were now an angry red color. And he now gave absolutely zero shits about being nice

"You think you can just master all Zoro-niisan's attacks in just a matter of minutes. It took me at least a month to master each one of those attacks. And you think you could steal them from him and beat me with them just like that? You're a disgrace!" Naruto screamed in unadulterated fury before unleashing his own storm of alternating attacks on the Uchiha, who struggled to defend.

**"Toro"**

**"Otoro"**

**"Hirameki"**

**"Samon"**

**"Maguma"**

**"Taka Nami"**

"What's the matter with Naruto? All the sudden I'm getting the same feeling from him I got from Gaara back then." Temari wondered allowed as she watched the one sided fight unfold before her.

"It's a Jinchuriki condition called Breaking Blade. If one gets too angry or has enough youkai flowing through their Chakra system, they could dip into a state of madness called Breaking Blade. It's kind of like Orochimaru's curse mark in that while it increases physical ability, it also causes a Jinchuriki to briefly lose their sanity while using it. Last I heard is Shukaku had Gaara in it for 13 years straight." Gyuki said as he continued to revive the corpse lying in front of him.

"Yeah that's right. I just hope Kyuubi's more relaxed than the rumors made him seem otherwise Naruto could be stuck like this forever." Temari shuddered at the thought.

While the bystanders looked on the fight with intrigue Sasuke was forced to continue to defend against Naruto's increasingly heated strikes _'How the hell is this dobe beating my attacks! I'm Uchiha! An elite! Even with years of training my power should dwarf that of something like him!'_

**"Yakkodori"**

Eventually Sasuke couldn't fend off Naruto anymore and his sword was knocked straight from his hands and into the water. This gave Naruto full opportunity to use both of his armed swords to impale him through the chest. With his opponent stuck in this position Naruto calmed down enough for Breaking Blade to fade away. The only thing for Naruto to do now was throw Sasuke straight away into the leg of the Hashirama statue.

"Eat bedrock teme!" Naruto screamed as he tossed his rival away and into the stone leaving a massive imprint from the strength of the throw.

While Sasuke thought about charging at the blonde again, he remembered where he was thrown and used his wings to fly up the statue, fully intending on grabbing Kuruma while Naruto left unattended "Thanks for giving me this fight dobe. With that sword I'll rule this ocean."

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto cried while running up the statue at an equal rate to Sasuke's flight. Thankfully for Kuruma, his jailer made it up before Sasuke and jumped up above the statue's head using the momentum to slice into Sasuke with a literally blazing attack.

**"Hiryu: Kaen"**

Naruto landed back on the statue, watching as one of Sasuke's many wounds from the fight burst into the hot blue flames as he screamed in agony. While watching the fight from his seal Kuruma chastised his weilder **_"That was way too damn close. One more move and you would have royally screwed."_**

"I don't know what you're complaining about. I had the whole situation under control, and beside sides I beat him didn't I?" Naruto said to his tenant while judging the amount of sake he had left.

Unfortunately Naruto was wrong as Sasuke used the fire burning his skin to melt his golden skin, turning him solid aurum from the inside out. While a majority of the changes in his appearance from the Curse Mark still remained, there was still many different traits. His pale skin was now a glistening gold along with his hair, and his bat like wings now had buzzsaws lining them. He also bone like gold growths sticking out from his chest and back, along with large spikes sticking out from the top of his wrist. Sasuke smugly glared at Naruto with pure hatred from above before naming this new form.

**"Golden Gargoyle"**

After only a few seconds of memorizing the details of Sasuke's latest transformation Naruto had to avoid getting impaled by one of the spikes on Sasuke's wrist, jumping down from the statue and back onto the surface of the lake, only to have dodge again from Sasuke breathing gold flaked fire down to him.

**"Fire Release: Golden Fireball Jutsu"**

The swordsman leapt into the air to avoid the ball of fire, but Sasuke flew into him with intent of trying to impale him again. Naruto guarded and was pushed into the wall, trying to push Sasuke off and find another opening. However this plan changed when he saw Sasuke develop another attack in his free hand. With his only choices being continuing to guard and getting electrocuted, and letting the attack impale him, Naruto chose the former.

**"Chidori Nagashi"**

Sasuke smiled sadistically while watching his opponent screaming as he was electrocuted by the attack, before dropping him into the lake below "Do you get the picture now dobe. Only the elite like me will triumph in life, while the weak and pathetic like you will always rot, rotting even more the more they try to resist. From her on in I will get your sword, your women, your dreams, and this sea, and will be know has a great hero who brought a hero to justice, while you will be known as a demon who murdrered an innocent man while his guard was down!"

"Funny, this coming from the person who did that not an hour ago." Naruto's voice came from nowhere causing Sasuke to desperately for his location.

"Show yourself dobe!"

"Sorry teme but if you want to find me you're going to have to work for it. Not like your used to working for things judging by how half the attacks you've used during this fight are stolen from somebody else. Where as almost everybody else has had to work to get where they are now."

"You'll always be nothing compared to me no matter how much work you do! The only reason you're as good as you are is because of that sword. And once you're executed that sword will be mine!"

"So you really think that the only reason I've gotten so strong is because of the power of Kuruma? Well then riddle me this Sasuke-teme. If that's the case then explain why I've been fending you off without using that sword once." Naruto informed Sasuke who was frozen in shock when he remembered that Kuruma had been in the Hashirama statue's head the entire fight.

"Not like it matters all that much though. I still had to work like hell to actually make it a demon weapon, and let me tell you it wasn't a pretty process. Kuruma gave me more burns then than what I have right now. So if you think you can still fight me with this knowledge be my guest!" Naruto said now revealing himself to be on the top of Madara's statue.

With his target now in plain view, Sasuke revved up the buzzsaws on his wings and flew towards the top of the statue at a speed with killing intent practically outlining his body.

**"Elite Slicer"**

Once contact made Sasuke felt himself slice into something in a timespan of little more than a second, something that he assumed to be Naruto. Sasuke turned around to look upon his rival's decapitated corpse, only to see that he was alive and well, running across the lake. And worse was that what he cut was the head of Madara Uchiha's statue.

"You defiled your own ancestors statue? Man your even worse than I thought, that'd be like me passing on Luffy's wanted poster." Naruto mocked the arrogant ninja over his mistake, which got the predicted response.

"How dare you make me do that dobe. Madara Uchiha was a greater man than you or any Senju will ever be! My clan is the superior bloodline of this weak and feeble world." Sasuke screamed in rage while watching Naruto once again scaled his own ancestors status.

"Oh really teme? Then why don't you prove it! Let's end this right here right now." Naruto said as he armed his swords for the final clash.

"A lose like you couldn't even scratch my headband!" Sasuke followed suit making a large golden arm from his own arm, before repeating the Chidori Nagashi with it. With no other words Naruto and Sasuke jumped or flew from their current position with full intent on ending this heated rivalry once and for all.

**"God's Wrathful Hand"**

Though Naruto feel immense pain at being shocked by the lightening shooting from every pore of the arm, he cut through with expert finesse before reaching Sasuke himself "This can't be! I can't be defeated by dobe trash like you! I am the elite! I an Uchiha! I am Sasuke!"

**"Nitoryu Iai: Rashomon"**

Naruto let himself crash into the lake, cooling of the burns he'd received from the fight and allowing him a moments rest in the lakes bounty. Meanwhile Sasuke fell down to earth, slipping into unconsciousness the moment he was cut, as well as turning back from both his Curse Mark and Devil Fruit form. The only thing that saved him was Itachi grabbing him before he could hit the water and sink like a hammer.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, but Naruto is better than you now. Just accept that fact and maybe you'll finally find true happiness. But I suppose it's partially my fault." Itachi said as he set his brother down on the river bank and turned towards Temari, Gyuki, and B "I humbly apologize for all the pain my brother has caused you."

"Hey no worries. I gave him enough of my own youkai to revive him so he should only be in a coma." Gyuki explained to the Akatsuki chairman.

But this apology wasn't nearly enough for Temari who grabbed him by the collar of his cloak "Don't think I'm just going to let you Akatsuki scum get away with what your trying to do. If you ever come near my village or any other village again, I'll cut your heard off and use it as a doorstop!"

"Your angry and commanding nature reminds me of Angel-chan. I can't lie, this is kind of attractive." Itachi said stolidly, but with a faint blush on his face. In response to this perverted remark, Temari tossed his ass into the lake, where Naruto waded as well.

After both men got up and stood on the water, Itachi opened his cloak and pulled a familiar katana from it "I think this is your sword Cinderface-san. You left this on that statue but I thought you might want this back."

"Wait you're just going to give this back to me? You do realize this sword is a demon weapon right? You could've just taken it from me and removed the Kyuubi from me with just that." Naruto asked, confused at his generosity.

"I could do that it wouldn't be a very honorable thing to do."

"This coming from the guy who killed his entire family in one night for literally no reason."

Surprsingly Itachi looked rather saddened by something and looked off to the side "There's actually more to the story than what the history books say. All I can say on the matter is beware of the Santatsu. And I hope you make it through the legal onslaught your about to go through. You may have beaten Sasuke in battle, but his plan of framing you still lies in wait."

The Uchiha turned around as if about to leave only to turn his head and offhandedly mentioning before transporting away "By the way the next time we meet, you'll have to teach me that old Harem Jutsu of your's. It might come in handy for me."

"This guy may act all tough, but he's an even bigger pervert than Ero-Sennin." Naruto grumbled to himself before thinking his situation over. No matter what he did Sasuke would still pin Gaara's assassination attempt on him and he couldn't escape due to his lack of knowledge with the legal system. And who knew what Sasuke would do to his friends while he was locked up "This is true fear right? Good, I've forgotten what it had felt like."

When Naruto heard footsteps from behind he and the others turned to see Danzō and a whole hoard of ROOT ANBU behind him "Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto, you are hereby under arrest for the attempted assassination of the Kazekage, Gaara Sabaku."

* * *

**(A/N): Great another chapter with an ending that will make people want to kill me. But don't worry Narut will be out of prison by the end of next chapter. Originally I was just going to have it be Sasuke and have the chapter be titled "The Fall of Sasuke Uchiha" but then last summer I played a game I needed to pay tribute to. And of you've looked in my favorites you know exactly what that game that is.**

** Ace Attorney. Whether it be the main series or Investigations this series kicks ass. So much so that I actually have the next chapter being dedicated to it. I already know who Naruto's defense and prosecution will be but I need to decide the judge. If you have any suggestions leave them in the reviews below. **

**The only complaints I have with the series are WHY HASN'T DAI GYAKUTEN SAIBAN BEEN LOCALZIED! And WHY ISN'T PHOENIX X MAYA CANON YET!**

**Wheatley: Go home Skillet your drunk!**

**I'm 17.**

**Wheatley: Then I'm drunk!**

**You're a robot!**

**Wheately: Then Cedric's drunk.**

**He's not even in these Author's Notes anymore. I can't take this absurdity. Just end the damn chapter already.**

**. . .**


	26. Troublesome Turnabout

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece or Ace Attorney. If I did then Capcom would localize Dai Gyakuten Saiban.**

**Ikō: Isn't that the game where Sherlock Holmes looks like the nudist from Food Wars?**

**Skillet: Yes Ikō now please stop giving my brain these mental scars.**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 24: Troublesome Turnabout**

* * *

The weather in Konoha currently matched the mood: A humid and rainy overcast that had only gotten stronger in the past couple of days. Many lives were lost in the Akatsuki terrorist attack earlier that week, whether they be from an agent or one of the many chimeras rampaging throughout the village.

Two particular shinobi had the greatest impact. One of these was the Division 2 Captain and leader of Team 10, Asuma Sarutobi. His jounin comrades found themselves in a great depression that wouldn't let up. Gai ran 1000 laps around the village in honor of their fallen comrade, and Kakashi spent all his time at the memorial stone, only leaving to sleep and use the bathroom. The Sandaime didn't make a public appearance till his funeral, looking teary eyed and sleep deprived. And the new Captain Kurenai locked herself in her apartment, not even allowing her students.

But this was probably because of the second death she was involved in that day, the one she was there to witness. One of her students Kiba Inuzuka had died at the hands of Shou Tucker. The death caused the entire Inuzuka clan and Division 7 to shut down, with both the head and sole remaining heir left in as deep a depression as Kurenai. Akamaru refused to leave his master's side, having to be dragged from the oven when the time for cremation came. And Isaribi refused the position of Division 12 Captain, instead taking up permanent residence in Division 7 and joining the Inuzuka clan.

The only happy thought for the villagers was Naruto's imprisonment. The very next day the trial was to commence and many were sure of a guilty verdict for the Shichibukai, at which point Sasuke would take that title per agreement with Sakazuki. However those close to Naruto knew the imprisonment was on false charges.

A group was made in front of the prison protesting against the charges, including Team Gai, Kankuro, The Ichirakus, the Konohamaru Corps, Maglako, and the rest of the Jinchuriki and bodyguards that had been there that day. Hinata would've joined in but after an incident with Sasuke making another move on her the same day of the attacks, Hiashi made sure that nothing left or entered the Hyuuga clan compound without heavy inspection first.

But it's not like Sasuke could get in anyways with Shino chasing him down in rage for his actions, partly to dull his anger at Kiba's death as well. While Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino could normally seen walking around the village in a completely lifeless fashion.

Only Sakura was unaffected by the tragedies involving her two former classmates. When asked she would say "Those bakas deserved it for their impudence. I always said they would amount to nothing."

Kakashi stood in front of the memorial stone just as he always did every morning, but as stated earlier he did so on a 24/7 basis not caring about the rain beating down his hair and soaking his mask. There had been many names added to the stone in the past days but several still stood out to the masked jounin.

_Rin Nohara_

_Obito Uchiha_

_Minato Namikaze_

_Ichigo Hatake_

_Ibiki Morino_

_Izumo Kamizuki_

_Asuma Sarutobi _

_Kiba Inuzuka_

"Even after everything that's over these years I still can't protect your son sensei. I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me." Kakashi muttered to his teacher, knowing he was probably somewhere out in the village mourning over the recent events as everyone else.

"I wandered all the way out here? What a drag." Kakashi turned around to see a bedraggled Shikamaru wandering through "This whole week has been a drag. Nothing has gone right and I keep popping up in the weirdest of places."

"Oh hello Shikamaru. I didn't see you at the funerals earlier, did you leave early?" Kakashi asked the younger chunin who seemed as unmotivated as ever, but for entirely different reasons.

"Yeah that's right. I thought that all the dead shouldn't see this pathetic wretch walking around their resting places."

While Kakashi was momentarily shocked at his words he changed the conversation by pulling a small scroll from his black tux "By the way Jiraiya visited Naruto in prison earlier. Apparently Naruto had something important to give you."

"That's funny, how come you haven't visited him yet." Shikamaru snarked towards the Division 1 Lieutenant before opening the scroll. His eyes widened when he realized what the contents of the scroll were "You've got to be kidding me! Why would Naruto give me a defense request?"

"His trial is tomorrow and he hasn't found a lawyer that will represent him, otherwise they'll probably just give him a rigged public defender. Since you're in Division 6 you probably know a lot about the law of this village, so you can reveal the-"

"I can't do it!" Shikamaru interrupted Kakashi before saying again, clearly getting choked up this time "I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei but I just can't do it. I already let Asuma-sensei die because of my lack of planning. I don't want to let everybody else down by getting Naruto executed. Just have Raido or Otou-San defend him!"

Silence covered Kakashi before he spoke out to the Nara again "They can't Shikamaru. Both your father and his lieutenant are high-ranking officials in Division 6 so letting either one of them defend would be considered "bias". Everybody else involved either believes he did it or wants to make it seem like he did. You're the only friend Naruto has in the courts now."

"…Alright, I'll think about it." Shikamaru said after a few more moments of cold silence before walking quietly back into the village.

* * *

Shikamaru was still thinking about it a few hours later, playing with the lighter Asuma had given him before his death on the roof of a random shop. He watched with relaxed boredom as he watched the villagers rebuild certain sections that were destroyed in the attack, along with people enjoying their everyday lives, such as children playing Ninja below him.

"Hey you kids get off of the roof right now! I thought I told you not to play up there." Their mother yelled at them from her window much to their disappointment.

The depressed chunin chuckled in happiness for them, knowing the children could still enjoy themselves not knowing of life's horrible secrets you learned growing up before an annoyed voice called for him from below "Hey Shika-kun, get down here you lazy slacker."

"Give me a second you troublesome woman." Shikamaru yelled down to his girlfriend befor jumping off the roof and facing her below "Now what do you need Temari-chan?"

"We're taking Naruto's defense. I was there and I know that Sasuke was the one who really tried to kill my brother. I won't let that bastard get away with and get Naruto killed over it!" Temari angrily explained her motivations much to Shikamaru's surprise.

"Wait a minute if you saw everything then doesn't that make you a vital witness for the case. You could take the stand and reveal the truth to the whole court!" Shikamaru asked his girlfriend who replied in the same angry tone.

"Don't you think I already tried that. Me and B have already tried to apply as witnesses but they said that we weren't reliable. They're only accepting two witnesses for the trial."

"And I'm guessing one of those witnesses is Sasuke. How troublesome; could this get any worse!" Shikamaru grumbled in frustration.

"I'm afraid it does get worse Shika-kun. The other witness is Sakura!" Temari explained the situation which only worsened Shikamaru's mood.

"But she was in the village when the skirmish happened! Are they really going to that far as to fake as a witness!"

"Looks like it to me. The only weapons we have now are the law of the Continental Court and the evidence we find. But so far the only thing I've managed to pick up is this medical report."

**Gaara's Medical Report Added to Evidence Record**

"Well I guess we have to start somewhere. There are three things we should do before the trial tomorrow. Investigate the Valley of the End, interview the so-called witnesses, and check with Naruto up in the detention center. That should be everything we need to do right?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know, you're the defense not me!"

* * *

It took them about an hour for the pair to make it to the scene of the crime. Since they didn't have to walk silently in a large group they were able to get there a lot faster then the Jinchurikis did a few days before.

"Not much we can look for around here unless we want to dive underwater. How troublesome." Shikamaru said while looking around for any thing that would be useful for their case tomorrow. Unfortunately it was mostly involved the parts of the fight with the Akatsuki and not Gaara's attempted murder.

That is until Temari saw a crimson red object floating in the river. She immediately recognized it as her younger brother's shield and reached to pick it up. But before she could a man in green spandex with a bowl cut stopped her "Stop young lady. I'm afraid you cannot touch that as it vital to our investigation."

"Wait a minute you're Maito Gai, the Division 11 Captain right?" Temari asked upon the appearance of the odd man.

"That's right Suna girl, so glad you recognized me." Gai said with his hand feeling his chin, only for Temari to angrily reply.

"Then what in hell's name are you doing gathering evidence against Naruto-san? You're his friend right, so why aren't you doing something that will help his case instead of making him look even more guilty!"

"I know, it's such a tragedy what happened. An innocent man being framed for a heinous crime he didn't commit by his arch-nemesis. And if he's found guilty then that man will take everything from him out of spite." Gai cried in sorrow complete with over the top anime style tears rolling down his face.

"Is this guy making fun of me?" Temari asked, getting increasingly irritated and preparing to smack the strange man with her fan.

"No Temari-chan he's just weird."

Ignoring their comments Gai continued with his sobbing "So I decided I could clear his name by finding evidence that he didn't do it, but even a man as youthful as me has found little evidence that would prove his innocence."

"How troublesome, I have to interview this guy? You do know we're Naruto's defense right? Any evidence you have that could be useful you should tell us about so we can add it to our evidence record." Shikamaru explained the situation which almost instantly cheered up Gai.

"Then there is a sliver of hope for Naruto yet. Ask me anything and I will provide!"

"Ok then, what evidence have you found?" Temari took up the offer almost immediately afterward.

"Well you already know about the Shukaku Shield we found a few moments ago, a chokutō at the bottom of the lake, and this odd kunai knife was found on one of the walls of the valley. We also have a Chakra Test sample from Gaara, but we haven't exactly gotten any results yet." Gai revealed eagerly.

**Shukaku Shield Added to Evidence Record**

**Kunai Knife Added to Evidence Record**

**Chakra Test Added to Evidence Record**

**Chokutō Sword Added to Evidence Record**

"That's actually a lot more evidence then I was expecting to add."

"It's actually not much in the grand scheme of things, but with how much the odds are stacked against us anything we find could useful. Especially considering who'll be judging this trial." Gai said somberly as he remembered the one in charge of the proceedings.

Shikamaru felt a pit in his stomach when he heard his tone and asked "Wait a minute, what is that supposed to mean? Who's judging the trial again?"

"I hate to say it, but the one who leads the trial will be Civilian Council Chairman Danzō Shimura."

"You've got to be kidding me. Judges are supposed to be unbiased, but he's probably the most biased guy possible. Did they get Satan himself to be the prosecutor?" Temari asked furiously, getting angrier and angrier with the bias in the trial.

"Actually no, since it was a Suna figure who was nearly assassinated that say they thought it would be fair for someone from Suna to act as prosecutor during this trial. As such the prosecution is Chiyo Akasuna." Gai further explained, which to Temari's relief made things look considerably.

_'Chiyo-Baasan may be a crazy old bat, but at least she's a wise crazy old bat. She won't let Danzō get away with any monkey business in tomorrow's trial.'_

"I think that's just about everything you can get out of me. If there's anything else I can find I'll tell you in a snap." Gai gave them a nice guy pose before walking off to talk to one of his investigators.

"I guess we can forget about investigating the place on our own. I guess we'll just have to hope whatever they find will come in handy somehow. For now we should move onto interviewing the witnesses so we can blow through their testimonies tomorrow." Shikamaru said while scratching his head in thought.

"Wait one of those witnesses is that pink haired slut from the Preliminary Exams right? The one who insulted Sunagakure? Can we stop at a pharmacy first?" Temari anxiously asked her boyfriend.

"Yeah why?"

"Ibuprofen. And tranquilizers."

* * *

Interviewing Sakura went about as well as you'd expect. They asked her everything from how she was at the Valley of the End from her description of the events, but they couldn't gather any evidence or anything truthful in the slightest from the fangirl. It eventually came to a head when Sakura insulted Temari's taste in men.

"I don't know why I'm talking to you anyways. You're to dumb to see my Sasuke-kun is the greatest ever, instead of your brain-dead slacker of a man." This remark got Sakura thrown out the window.

"No! My cabbages!"

Ignoring the cries of the unfortunate merchant whose crops Sakura fell on and destroyed Shikamaru sat down on a nearby chair and grumbled to himself "Well that went about as well as expected. I guess that leaves Sasuke, what a drag."

"Well the Uchiha clan compound isn't to far from here, so that makes things a bit easier." Temari noted after managing to calm herself down. Indeed Sakura's apartment wasn't far from the Uchiha compound as after she moved out of her parents house, Sakura chose this apartment to get closer to Sasuke.

"I know that, but that murderous dickwad will probably be even harder to get information out of because he actually did the crime so he'll probably be as vague as possible. Or he'll just insult us the entire time." Shikamaru predicted of the interview while continuing to fidget with his late sensei's lighter.

"There's no sense in procrastinating Shika-kun. We might as well get this over with so we can talk to Naruto."

Shikamaru sighed in exhaustion before standing up from the chair "Fine but that doesn't mean I have to like talking to that jackass."

"Trust me Shika-kun neither will I." Temari kissed the lazy ninja on the cheek before they walked out the door.

* * *

When they got to the Uchiha compound about five minutes later they weren't surprised to find that it was practically a desolate ghost town due to the genocide that had taken place there 10 years ago. But what they were surprised to see molten gold and scorch marks all over the compound.

"I thought Naruto's place was dirty. This entire place is a mess." Shikamaru said as he looked around the compound and at the mess that was made in it. However a certain red katana caught Shikamaru picked the katana up by its hilt, so as not to be burned by the actual blade "Looks like Sasuke finally got his paws on Kurama thanks to Danzō. Naruto's not going to be happy about this."

**Kurama Added to Evidence Record**

"Hey Kurama you still in there?" Shikamaru screamed at the sword only to gain no response.

"He probably retreated back into Naruto's stomach when he got arrested by Danzō, so it's probably just a normal katana now." Temari said as she examined the katana before hearing a large impact of rage nearby "And judging from that temper tantrum Sasuke's probably already figured out."

"Knowing that lunatic it could be any number of things that set him off. Let's just get this over with." Shikamaru grumbled while walking over to the location of the noise.

**"Golden Lotus Volcano"**

As predicted by Temari, Sasuke was in a very unhappy mood and took his aggression out on the further regions of his clan's compound. But it wasn't due to Kuruma not being a demon weapon anymore; he actually had no idea about that. Rather it was about his damaged pride from the humiliating loss he suffered from Naruto, complete with an X-shaped scar on his arm to remind him of his defeat.

_'I refuse to believe that dobe beat me without that sword. I am an Uchiha, there must have been some trickery behind it all, it's just like his kind to use such cowardly tactics on a great man like myself!'_

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu"**

Sasuke was stopped dead in tracks by Shikamaru's signature jutsu, giving Shikamaru a chance to talk "Hey Señor Sociopath we need to talk to you."

"I've had enough dobes for more than enough of one lifetime. Tell me what you want before I throw you out by your hair." Sasuke growled at the pair.

"We're Naruto's defense. We need to ask you a few questions about what happened yesterday."

"I don't know why you're bothering with it. everybody in the village knows that dobe will be sentenced to death at tomorrow's trial. But I might as well humor you, that way you'll see that trying to protect him is a lost cause." Sasuke went to his normal arrogant manner.

Shikamaru had to bite his tongue to avoid a standard sarcastic remark, before bringing himself to ask "I'll need you to describe what happened that day."

"What is there to say anyways. We were on our way to the island when the Akatsuki attacked us and took out almost all of us before pouting that freakish statue at Naruto. That's when the coward used a substitution jutsu on Gaara to save himself. So I fought him to take him in…damnit…How could an elite like me have lost to such trash." Sasuke growled the last part of his statement, turning red from anger at the thought of his defeat.

Barely containing a grin at the thought of Sasuke getting beaten, Shikamaru finished writing down his words, before folding the paper up and placing it in his pocket.

**Sasuke's Testimony Added to Evidence Record**

"And by the way, that sword near the entrance. It's clearly Naruto's but what is it doing here? You need to explain that and we'll be on our way." Temari asked their other question only for Sasuke to break out laughing all of a sudden.

"That fool was stupid enough to think he could defy me in such a way, so after he was arrested and his weapons were confiscated a I took it from prison storage. He deserves everything that's coming to him for denying me the right to do whatever I please and receive whatever I covet." Sasuke bragged of his rivals current situation, which made it to where Temari could no longer hide her rage.

"And one of those things was killing my brother in cold blood? You think I'm just going to let you get away with that you-" Temari was cut off when Sasuke groped her breasts, which received him a very strong slap.

Despite the painful smack across his face Sasuke's smug and maniacal demeanor didn't change in the slightest "What are you going to do Suna whore. Press charges against me for sexual battery? You can try but you'll only end up with a guilty verdict for yourself. I might even have you as one of my wives once I take over."

"Shut the hell up!" Shikamaru completely lost his temper and punched the arrogant Uchiha himself, though he showed little reaction to it.

"You dare to strike me trash? I think someone with such legendary intellect should know that disobeying an Uchiha is absolutely futile. I groped your whore, and I was also the one who put Gaara in front of that statue when it fired. But guess what? There's nothing you can do about it. I'll make sure that dobe gets a guilty verdict and gets sentenced to death. And just for good measure I'll make sure that your Suna bitch is one of my wives when the South Blue becomes my domain. Along with the Hyuuga of course."

"I swear you're going to pay far your crimes Uchiha-teme!" Temari growled at the man who nearly killed her youngest brother.

"It's not a crime if you don't get caught. It's a hustle sweetheart. And besides it's my word against yours." Sasuke mocked them as he walked away into the compound.

* * *

After that infuriating encounter with Sasuke, Shikamaru and Temari quickly moved to the prison. Outside the lava guarded institution a large crowd of protestors picketed outside, despite the sweltering heat caused by the molten moat dug around the prison by nature itself.

"Let Naruto-niisan go you jerks!"

"Sasuke is the one responsible!"

"Bunch of bastards!"

"Tear down this wall Danzō!"

"Almost everyone I know is here. That's certainly reassuring." Shikamaru said before walking into the crowd with his girlfriend, where he was quickly noticed by the members of the angry mob.

"Shikamaru you've finally arrived! Have you come to join our youthful gathering to gain Naruto's freedom?!" Lee asked him in a tone as hot-blooded as ever, despite being out there the longest besides Neji and Maglako.

"Sort of. I'm Naruto's defense tommorow so I came by to ask him a few questions." Shikamaru explained only for Hinata to walk up and inform him of an issue with his plan.

"I'm afraid we can't do that right now Shikamaru-san. We've tried getting I to see him but they're not letting anyone in besides ROOT operatives trying to beat a false confession out of him, or high-ranking officials like Jiraiya-sama." Hinata explained the situation looking incredibly somber while doing so.

"Wait a minute. What are you doing here Hinata? I thought you're old man had you held up in the Hyuuga compound to keep you away from Sasuke. Did you sneak out or something?"

"No, though in hindsight I probably would've had my father not allowed to go visit Naruto-kun. He did send Tokuhei out with me though." Hinata explained why she was there while the lieutenant of Division 10.

"I'm actually a little disappointed we didn't run into the Uchiha on the way here. I really wanted to pump him full of lead." Tokuhei said disapointedly.

This explanation gave the Suna girl listening an idea. A wonderful, awful idea "I think I know how we can talk to Naruto. Instead of sneaking out we can just sneak in!"

"Yeah real great idea. But you seem to be forgetting the 500 gallons of molten rock surrounding the prison. If we try to get in any way besides the main gates we'll just end up getting ourselves fried." Shikamaru pointed out before Roshi stepped up to the plate and performed a series of handsigns which somehow caused a large tunnel through the lava.

**"Lava Release: Molten Spreader"**

While anyone who wasn't a Jinchuriki was very shocked at this sudden power, Roshi himself seemed very confident with his ability "Gaara controls sand, B controls ink, and the Cinderface controls metal. Whereas I control lava and magma. Of course I will need payment for this. How about a little puff puff?"

"Touch my sister's ass and I attack your severed arm to Crow." Kankuro instinctively went into brother mode with the pervert, grabbing the bandages of his weapon tied to his back, which immediately made him back off.

"I guess we should be heading in Shika-kun."

"Not so fast Temari-chan, I think that it's best that you stay here for now." Shikamaru told his girlfriend. While she was going to argue with this idea Shikamaru predicted this and continued "There's been a lot of political unrest between Suna and Konoha since Gaara's assassination attempt. If we get caught and you're with us, it could spark another international incident."

Understanding his reasoning, Temari gave an annoyed sigh before pointing to Roshi "Fine Shika-kun. But there's going to be an international incident anyways if that pervert tries to grab me again."

"That's fine with me." Shikamaru said before being interrupted again before he and Hinata could descend into the lava tunnel.

"Hold it. While I don't want to disobey village rules, I couldn't call myself Naruto's friend if didn't go in with you. Knowing his eternal rival is waiting to challenge him on the other side is sure to keep his flames of youth burning brightly in this cold winter of despair for him." Rock Lee declared with fire in his eyes.

"I don't have the time or patience to argue with you right now, so just follow us in." Shikamaru told Lee who eagerly followed his command by jumping into the path along with Hinata and Shikamaru. After about two minutes of crawling harmlessly through the hole despite the molten rock surrounding it, they came across a stone wall blocking their way in.

Shikamaru gave an irritated grown when he saw this obstacle, before Hinata gently moved him aside and blew the wall down in a single Jūken strike. This backfired about five seconds later when gallons of water spilled from the hole and flooded the entryway. Hinata and Shikamaru were barely able to swim into the prison against the force of the water.

"Sandaime-same really pulled out all the stops to make sure no one breaks in or out of this place? That would normally be reassuring but now it's troublesome." Shikamaru complained in between coughing up the water he'd swallowed.

That's when Hinata realized that they were missing someone and that they wouldn't be able to escape the current easily "Wait a minute. Doesn't Lee-san have a Devil Fruit power!"

"Oh shit!" Shikamaru almost immediately dived back into the hole pulling Lee out moments later.

"That was way to close. My flames of youth were almost put out for good!"

"We can talk about your flames of youth later Lee. As long as you're okay we need to find out where these bastards have kept Naruto." Shikamaru pondered before hearing a loud scream of agony coming from down the hallway. The group frantically ran to where the screams were coming from, to see a very unpleasant sight.

The ROOT agents were still trying to force a confession out of Naruto, but the interrogation they were using was more like a torture. He was hanging from the wall, bound by chains with bruises and lacerations all around his body from 72 hours of this beating. Currently the ROOT agents were using electrified kanabos.

"Just confess already you demon trash. Maybe Uchiha-sama will go easy on you if you admit to all your heinous crimes and submit to his greatness." The masked ANBU sneered at his prisoner before whacking him another time with the weapon.

Despite the immense pain he was going through, Naruto managed to hold in another scream of agony and grinned at his tormentors "Sorry but I don't have anything to confess to you bastards. I have a gesture for you but my hands are chained to the wall."

This smart remark got Naruto another hit from the electricity charged weapons from both the ANBU, and this time he wasn't able to hold in a scream of agony. Those watching in secret were horrified at what the sheer horror of Naruto's life for the past several days. Deciding this had to stop, Lee snuck to the other side of the room before making his presence known without having revealing the presence of the others.

"The power of youth is greater than the power of Danzō. Renounce your evil ways and embrace the power of youth!" Lee intentionally yelled as loud as he possibly could gain the attention of everyone in the room.

"Bushy Brows?"

"An intruder! Get him!" Once the ROOT ANBU noticed him Lee took off as fast as he could with his leg weights on in the direction, forcing the guards to leave Naruto behind and chase after the spandex wearing intruder, leaving Hinata and Shikamaru to approached the chained and beaten Naruto.

"I'm guessing you can tell with what Lee just pulled why we're here."

"That's sadly not the strangest thing I've seen him do during a mission. You haven't seen him undercover in drag." Naruto joked to his friend and girlfriend before coughing up blood.

"Naruto-kun!"

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, Kurama is keeping me alive for now. I'm sure you've had a lot more to worry about than me in these past couple of days anyways with…what happened." Naruto's mood suddenly turned somber and took a sideways glance.

"Then I guess you've heard about Kiba and Asuma-sensei?" Shikamaru asked, looking just as despaired as Naruto with the recent deaths.

"Yeah Ero-Sennin told me." Naruto said with both sadness and anger lacing their voices from the thoughts of their deaths, before he spoke up again "Listen to me, no matter what happens I don't want either of you to give up. Kiba and Asuma-senpai would want us to stay strong."

"I was never going to give up Naruto-kun." Hinata said before getting up on her toes and kissing the chained swordsman, something he gladly returned.

When the two broke the kiss Shikamaru asked Naruto "By the way, you've probably realized those chains aren't kairoseki by now. So why haven't you broken free and escaped already?"

"Yeah I should just break loose from these things and run away into the misty night. That won't make me look guilty in the slightest!" Naruto said sarcastically before directing their attention to a needle on the table nearby "That right there is a chakra needle. You can use a sample of my chakra for tomorrow's trial."

Shikamaru followed his orders sticking the needle into his arm and sliding it back, letting the swordsman's chakra flow into it.

**Naruto's Chakra Sample Added to Evidence Record**

"You guys should probably get out of here soon. They've probably given up on trying to catch up to Bushy Brows and are heading back here to torture me some more." Naruto said with a reassuring smile.

The two shinobi nodded before walking off to go find Lee, but Hinata turned around again to say "Naruto-kun, please just stay alive."

"No worries I've been through worse before."

* * *

The small group managed to find a quick escape route of the prison, and managed to escape without being noticed by the guards or other prisoners. Now the sun was setting, and many of the protesters were either going home to rest for tomorrow's trial, or some of the more daring ones like Neji or Maglako actually camped outside the prison.

"So I guess that's it for today?" Temari asked her boyfriend. Currently only she, Hinata, and Shikamaru stood outside the field of tents covering the entrance to the prison.

"Not really much we can do now. Gai-sensei's probably finished investigating the Valley of the End already, but since it's so late I doubt he found anything worthwhile. How troublesome." Shikamaru said while deep in thought of what would happen tomorrow.

"Don't worry Shikamaru. I believe in you and so does Naruto. We can't give up, not even if we lose tomorrow. I'll do everything in my power to save Naruto-kun, even if it means breaking him out of Impel Down itself." Hinata said with a determined look on her face.

"I should probably head back to my hotel room soon Shika-kun. You know how protective Baki-sensei and Kankuro can be of me." Temari explained before unfolding her fan and using the breeze to fly off in the direction of the hotel district "I'll see you all tomorrow!"

Shikamaru nodded as he watched his girlfriend float away, and smiled at the thought of her as he began his trip back home "Troublesome woman."

* * *

"It's about time you got home Shikamaru! I've been worried sick about you!" Yoshino scolded her son when he got home about fifteen minutes later.

"Sorry Okasan.I had a lot of work to do today in Division 6." Shikamaru told her before heading to his room. He took off his chunin flak jacket before watching the pink clouds and orange sunset outside his door. Getting lost in thought he gain to fidget with the lighter again, which only led to thoughts of Asuma. How he was killed by that insane Akatsuki member only a few days before. How he was powerless to stop his death. How he didn't have very much evidence in Naruto's favor. How he could lose to Danzō tommorow and get Naruto executed.

"I need to stop thinking shit like this; I need some fresh air." Shikamaru said to himself as he walked outside to his backyard. The sun had gone by now, and the crescent moon lit up the night sky.

After a few more minutes of sitting alone under the stars, he heard the voice of his father nearby "Shikamaru come here for a sec. We need to talk."

Within only a few minutes they'd begun a game of shogi. While continuing to strategize Shikaku spoke to his son again "I heard you're taking Naruto's case. Pretty big one for a rookie chunin like you. But you can't win with your head in the clouds."

"Shut up."

"So the Akatsuki you fought, were they strong?"

"Yeah, both of them had Devil Fruit powers."

"And the evidence is stacked against you in the trial right?"

"Yup."

"So what are you going to do about it? If someone like Asuma couldn't beat them, you certainly can't, and everything will be rigged for certain tommorow." Shikaku continued to speak to his son, who for the most part remained silent.

"You're screwing with my moves Otou-san."

"I guess you've not stupid enough to get yourself killed fighting those lunatics. That's good, I don't want to be in the same boat as the Sandaime. Going to his own son's funeral. But I guess the truth is hard to face, Asuma's dead and Naruto's in prison."

Finally having enough, Shikamaru knocked the board away which inadvertently knocked the lights out in the room "I'm a useless coward okay? Don't you think I know that by now."

"You won't lose tommorow. That's also the truth. You may be physically weak Shikamaru, but with a mind like yours you can take on opponents 50x your strength." Shikaku told his son before walking off to bed."

"Someone's certainly got a lot of personal issues don't they?" Shikamaru turned around to see who's said that only to see a red turtle with a scroll in its mouth, standing in the corner of the room.

"It's official, I've cracked. What a drag." The lazy chunin said while slapping his forehead, only for the turtle to speak again with news that made Shikamaru's eyes widen.

"Gai-sensei summoned me to give you a quick update. That chakra that had been placed in Gaara's system through the subsitute on jutsu was Sasuke's. This is incredibly incriminating evidence, so use it wisely tomorrow.

**Chakra Test Updated in Evidence Record**

When the turtle disappeared, Shikamaru stared at the scroll holding the update for at least five minutes straight before regaining his sense. From there on in, the Nara's previously frozen brain worked like a well oiled machine. He placed the shogi board back up before placing the pieces back on the board, formulating a plan while he did so. Images of his enemies flashed through his head while he planned. Kakazu, Hidan, Sasuke. It didn't take long for him to come up with a plan of action, and when morning came he smirked as he put on his flak jacket.

As he had come up with a plan that was sure to put the Uchiha into his rightful place. The place he'd put Naruto into, tortured in a cell.

* * *

Waiting in the Hikoku Lobby next to Temari, Shikamaru looked over his evidence record quickly so as not to forget any important evidence today. As far as he was concerned, every piece was critical in the case.

**Gaara's Medical Report **

**Shukaku Shield **

**Kunai Knife**

**Chakra Test**

**Chokutō Sword **

**Kurama**

**Sasuke's Testimony **

**Naruto's Chakra Sample**

"What are looking at Shika-kun?" Temari noticed her boyfriend staring at the scroll he'd made the previous night.

"It's the evidence record. Everything here fits pretty well, but I'm not sure what the sample Naruto gave us yesterday will do for us." Shikamaru wondered aloud only for Temari to come up with a solution.

"Why don't we test it with chakra paper. Each person has a different type, so if it's different then the type found scattered around the crime scene that could create a contradiction." Temari pulled a slip out of her pocket and had Shikamaru let some of the chakra leak from the needle onto the paper which split into two "That means he has wind chakra."

**Naruto's Chakra Sample Updated in Evidence Record**

"Excuse me Nara-san. The trials about to begin so could you take your spot at the defense." A bailiff came into the lobby and informed them of the time.

When they walked into the courtroom they saw it was in large-scale, with audiences from all the nations on the island. Marines and Division 13 ANBU were posted at every door, and Danzō sat a large's seat, with the Five Kage behind him in their own seats. So far almost everyone in the courtroom jeered at the defense, though most of them came from the Konoha section.

"Demon lover!"

"How dare you try to claim his innocence!"

"You better change your plea to guilty!"

Ignoring the mob, Shikamaru and Temari sat down confidently at the defense's desk desk with Chiyo sitting straight across from them in the prosecution's desk "I know that poor child probably isn't responsible for what happened. But don't think I'm going to go easy on you."

"Court is now in session. I require order!" Danzō cried as he banged his gavel gaining everyone's attention "Before we begin I would like to explain the verdict process to anyone who doesn't understand the system. For Continental Cases each of the Kage will get a preliminary and final vote, when either the defense or prosecution rests. While the preliminary won't have any affect, the final will decide the outcome. I may also claim a verdict in the event it's clear which side is correct. Also eyewitness testimony that wouldn't normally be used in investigation due to genjutsu is now applicable here."

_'And I'm so sure you're going to use that power fairly against me. What a drag.'_

"Before we bring in the defendant and have the prosecution give it's opening statement, we'll do the preliminary votes." Danzō said before the votes flashed behind him, something that made the defense blanch.

_Hokage: Innocent _

_Acting Kazekage: Innocent_

_Tscuhikage: Guilty _

_Mizukage: Guilty_

_Raikage: Guilty_

Things only made Shikamaru feel worse when they led Naruto to the Hikoku cage in the center of the room. Naruto looked very worse for wear from the days of nonstop torture he'd received from ROOT. Despite this Naruto had refused to give in and smiled as he was placed into the cage and lifted into the air.

"The prosecution will now give it's opening statement."

"Yes your honor. About four days ago the Akatsuki intercepted the group of Jinchuriki meant to be confined to another island for a period of time, with a new technology developed by serial killer and missing-nin Shou Tucker. According to eyewitness testimony Roronoa Naruto used the substitution jutsu to replace himself with Gaara while the machine fired. Though he lived due to B's intervention, this is still considered an attempted assassination. I will now call my first witness."

* * *

"Would the witness please state their name and occupation."

"Maito Gai, Captain of Division 11 your honor!" Gai said with a grin on his face and his thumbs up in a nice guy pose, successfully hiding his contempt for the judge.

"How exactly are you related to this case again? And what is Elvis doing as our witness anyways?" Chiyo asked once again playing senile.

"Well I'm the lead investigator for the case. It's so sad, a young man framed for murder in the springtime of his youth, and I'm forced to testify against him." Gai sobbed again, with anime tears rolling down his face.

"If the witness is done sobbing could he please testify?"

"Of course your honor!"

**(Cross Examination~Moderato 2001)**

**Witness Testimony**

When we came to the crime scene there was a whole slew of evidence.

And unfortunately a lot of it incriminated Naruto.

There was a kunai with Gaara's blood on the handle.

And there was a Chokutō sword found at the bottom of the river.

Not to mention the field of chakra spread around the area.

We could only assume these things to have belonged to Naruto since we weren't given access to testing technology.

"You weren't given access to testing technology? That's absurd, it's necessary to prove his guilt!" Danzō scolded the captain only for him to fire back.

"But weren't you the one who restricted us to everything but the chakra tester?" Gai pointed out much to Danzō's ire.

"Hogwash! I refuse to indulge this witness' flights of fancy anymore! Defense begin you're cross-examination."

**Cross Examination**

When we came to the crime scene there was a whole slew of evidence.

And unfortunately a lot of it incriminated Naruto.

There was a kunai with Gaara's blood on the handle.

And there was a Chokutō sword found at the bottom of the river.

Not to mention the field of chakra spread around the area.

**_Hold It!_**

"Was there anything distinct about the chakra? Like say it's elemental type?" Shikamaru asked only for Danzō to bang his gavel angrily.

"That has nothing to do with the case at hand. I will make this clear that the defense shall not badger the witness with pointless questions!"

**_Objection!_**

Surprisingly this objection came from Chiyo who slammed her frail hands on her desk and argued with the corrupt councilor "The type of the chakra could be critically important, especially if it's not the Hikoku! Witness, you'll add this statement to your testimony!"

"Of course miss!"

The type of the chakra was fire according to the test results.

**_Objection!_**

"You say that the fire chakra in the Valley of the End came from Naruto, but that directly contradicts the chakra sample received from Naruto yesterday. The chakra received from him was wind!"

"By the power of youth! You are right; that's an incredibly large contradiction on my part!" Gai exclaimed though he seemed a lot happier than most people would at being proven wrong.

"Exactly! The fire chakra must have come from somebody else that day." Shikamaru stated his argument.

**_Hold it!_**

"I concede that the fire chakra couldn't have come from Naruto. But it doesn't necessarily mean it came after the assassination. One of the Akatsuki members could have released it. But I guess that does make the evidence as a whole null and void." Chiyo said while rubbing her wrinkled chin thought, before moving on.

"You're honor, this witness had said everything he can about the case I'm afraid. I think it's time we move onto the eyewitnesses don't you think?" Chiyo claimed with a smile on her face.

"I agree. The prosecution may call its next witness." Danzō told her before banging his gavel, signifying the beginning of the next round of testimony.

"Looks like we're cross-examining Sakura next Shika-kun. It's a good thing we remembered the ibuprofen." Temari said while grimacing at the memories of her earlier encounter with the pathetic excuse for a kunoichi.

"It should be pretty easy but that doesn't mean it will be any less troublesome."

* * *

"Would the witness please state their name and occupation?"

"My name is Sakura Haruno. I'm an independent kunoichi for Konoha." Sakura explained surprisingly politely to the old prosecutor. She couldn't tell why but there was something she liked about the prosecutor.

"So you were an eyewitness to the crime four days ago? Tell me, how did you get there so fast?" Shikamaru asked the girl of her whereabouts, knowing exactly why she was really at the stand that day.

Unfortunately for the lazy chunin, Sakura wasn't nearly as cordial with him as she was Chiyo "I was the Top Kunoichi six years ago Shikamaru-baka, of course I can do something like that! You have no right to question me about that since your just a dobe from a second-rate clan!"

"If this bitch keeps showing disrespect like that, I'm going to be the next one on trial." Temari said angrily to Shikamaru who merely sighed in equal annoyance.

"Keep your cool Temari-chan. All we have to do is dismantle her testimony and she'll be out of our hair."

"If you're done harassing the witness Nara, we can begin her testimony." Danzō said, completely shifting the blame out of spite.

**(Cross Examination~Moderato 2002)**

**Witness Testimony**

After I made it there I saw all the freaks fighting people in cloaks.

There was also this weird statue machine there.

I think the guy who looked like Naruto-baka brought it.

Eventually they took out all the freaks and left with the machine.

And then Naruto-baka stabbed the Kazekage out of nowhere!

There was blood everywhere!

But then my Sasuke-kun showed that trash who's boss!

Danzō sat there silently for a moment before speaking again with a smug smile "This is a remarkably solid testimony. I see no real need for any foolish cross-examination from the defense. I will now produce a verdict."

**_Objection!_**

"I retain my right to cross-examine this witness. You can't deny me that right!" Shikamaru voiced his objection to the corrupt judge though they were quickly shut down.

"Overruled. The defense will accept its arguments haven't held up and change its plea!" Danzō ordered Shikamaru, attempting to end the case quickly.

"That's right Shikamaru-baka, my testimony is unshakable! You and your Suna-bitch should give up and bow before me and my beauty and talent." Sakura mocked the defense before Chiyo spoke out.

**_Objection!_**

"You claim that her testimony is rock solid but we can't be sure of that without a cross examination. I say we should let the defense cross examine the witness."

"How many times do I have to say this. It's simply not necessary as his guilt his clear!" Danzō stubbornly resisted, preparing to slam down his given and pass his false verdict.

But before he could Hiruzen intervened from behind "Danzō, you will let Shikamaru cross-examine this witness. I don't care how sure you are, judges are supposed to be unbiased, which you have shown you aren't. Continue this nonsense and I'll put the trial in recess to find a new judge!"

"I understand Sandaime-sama." Danzō grumbled bitterly at his old rival and slammed his gavel back down "The defense may cross-examine this witness."

**Cross Examination**

After I made it there I saw all the freaks fighting people in cloaks.

There was also this weird statue machine there.

I think the guy who looked like Naruto-baka brought it.

Eventually they took out all the freaks and left with the machine.

And then Naruto-baka stabbed the Kazekage out of nowhere!

**_Objection!_**

"You claim that Naruto stabbed Gaara, but that simply isn't possible." Shikamaru yelled at the pink haired girl from his desk much to her ire.

"Are you doubting my words! You have no right to call someone like me a liar Shikamaru-baka!" Sakura screeched at the defense, causing many people in the audience to momentarily lose their hearing.

"Yes I am, because they directly contradict Gaara's medical report! The cause of his momentary death was heavy loss of chakra; at no point did the report say he was ever stabbed." Shikamaru revealed causing Sakura to double take and the court to go into an uproar.

"Order, I will have order!"

"Explain to me witness, if you really saw the events as they occurred then how did you miss something as big as the way the victim was attacked?" Shikamaru continued to grill Sakura only for Chiyo to intervene.

**_Objection!_**

"I understand how you would think that was a contradiction between the evidence and testimony. But in actuality there's no contradiction to be found. We received an updated report that shows that Gaara had been stabbed at least once. We're not sure if it was Akatsuki member or the Hikoku who's responsible, but it does clear up the contradiction."

**Gaara's Medical Report Updated in Evidence Record**

"And I'm so sure the one who gave it to you was ROOT. What a drag." Shikamaru said as he slammed his forehead against the desk.

"It must be annoying to have something like that happen all the time. Happy this is only a one time thing for me." Temari said while Danzō used his gavel for the umpteenth time that day.

"Very well. If there's no other issues then the witness may continue."

**(Cross Examination~Moderato 2004)**

**Witness Testimony**

That defense baka doesn't know what he's talking about!

I saw everything and he should trust my words unconditionally!

Naruto-baka stabbed the Kazekage with that kunai!

But then my Sasuke-kun kicked his ass like the trashy loser he is!

My Sasuke-kun is the greatest, isn't he?

He should be a chunin instead of these dobes!

"Aside from her ranting, there's not really much we can use that won't go against your plan Shika-kun." Temari said to the defense who sat there deep in thought.

"Yeah but one statement in there strikes me as interesting. I think we can use it to end this testimony and move onto the true culprit." Shikamaru revealed before treading on with next move.

**Cross Examination **

That defense baka doesn't know what he's talking about!

I saw everything and he should trust my words unconditionally!

Naruto-baka stabbed the Kazekage with that kunai!

**_Hold it!_**

"There's something I find a bit odd about this mystery kunai. Naruto is a swordsman who keeps his weapons hitched to his side. So why would he use a kunai instead of a sword?" Shikamaru asked only for Chiyo to explain it away.

"Just because he uses swords primarily, doesn't mean he can't use other weapons. He might have used a kunai to throw off the investigation."

Shikamaru wasn't deterred by this "But there's another troublesome detail about this kunai. While Gaara was claimed to have been stabbed, there's not a single drop of blood on the blade itself. Instead it seems to be on the handle."

"So what? It could have been washed off in the river when it fell, while the blood on the handle had already soaked in through the fabric." Chiyo tried to come up with another explanation which Shikamaru shot down.

"But the kunai was found on the edge of the valley, not in the actual river. But it banks the question why Naruto threw away the murder weapon in such an obvious spot, instead of in the river where it'd be harder to find. Maybe because this evidence was planted!"

This reveal sent the courtroom into another uproar causing Danzō to call for attention "Order, I will have order! What it reason for this outrageous claim Nara!"

"I agree with the defense your head honor. The fact that the medical update came so quickly, the odd site of the weapon, and the way the blood has been placed on the weapon. Everything has pointed to it being falsified." Chiyo conceded to the possibility.

"Of course that also means this witness' testimony is based on evidence that wasn't even evidence to begin with. That means her testimony is absolutely useless." Shikamaru exclaimed, which pissed Sakura off even more.

"How dare you baka! I'm better than you and I say that loser stabbed Gaara. He's guilty and you better say he is, or I'll come over pound you're face into the ground!" Sakura screamed before going over to the defense bench to make good on her threat, only to be grabbed by one of the Marines stationed nearby.

"Marines, please take this witness away. Her testimony is no longer needed." Danzō ordered them, though this was the last thing he wanted to do as the trial would now be further prolonged.

Temari gained a gleeful smile as she watched the pink haired harpy be carried from the courtroom by marines, kicking and screaming all the way. Once Sakura was gone Shikamaru spoke again "That's two witnesses down, now we have to move on to the final battle. Sasuke."

* * *

"Would the witness please state their name and occupation?"

"Sasuke Uchiha. I'm a gennin level shinobi and the heir to the Uchiha clan." Sasuke said, smiling immensely at his superior in the Santatsu Foundation as he sat in the judges seat.

"You were part of the group that was going to guard the Jinchuriki on the Jurodmo Island right?" Shikamaru asked, secretly hiding his hatred for the witness.

"Of course I was dobe. I was also there to watch Naruto sacrifice the Kazekage to save his own cowardly ass. That's what you called me here to tell you about right?"

"Indeed the witness may begin their testimony."

**(Cross Examination~Moderato 2007)**

**Witness Testimony**

I was assigned to act as Naruto's bodyguard during the trip to Jurodmo.

But the Akatsuki stopped us along the way and attacked..

I fought well, but I couldn't beat them thanks to the weakness of the others.

That's when they started to fire the statue on Naruto.

But then the coward subsituted himself with Gaara!

The poor bastard didn't even have time to defend himself.

That's when Naruto attacked me too.

"I believe this is a solid testimony and would declare my verdict now if Hokage-sama would let me. Unfortunately he would rather I have the defense cross-examination your testimony." Danzō said while stroking his scarred chin.

"It's not like it matters. That dobe will never find anything on me!" Sasuke arrogantly mocked the defense only for him to begin looking through his testimony.

**Cross Examination**

I was assigned to act as Naruto's bodyguard during the trip to Jurodmo.

But the Akatsuki stopped us along the way and attacked.

I fought well, but I couldn't beat them thanks to the weakness of the others.

That's when they started to fire the statue on Naruto.

But then the coward substituted himself with Gaara!

The poor bastard didn't even have time to defend himself.

**_Objection!_**

"You say Gaara didn't have anytime to defend himself Uchiha? I find that kind of hard to believe considering this shield found at the bottom of the river." Shikamaru said as he held the former demon weapon up into the air.

**_Objection!_**

"So the gaki used a shield for a demon weapon? That doesn't necessarily mean that he used it defend himself. It probably ended up in the lake long before he even had the chance!" Chiyo brainstormed only for Shikamaru to speak out again.

**_Objection!_**

"Actually Baasan, we had the shield tested for foreign chakra earlier, and we found a whole slew of a recent signature not from Gaara or the Ichibi. This could only mean Gaara had enough time to defend himself from the attack." Shikamaru said, causing the whole court to go silent.

Eventually Temari spoke out "What does that have to do with this case at all? We just went through a whole lot of nothing!"

"I know that Temari-chan, but that was the closest thing to a contradiction I could find. All I have to do is make sure he keeps talking until I can pin him." Shikamaru explained before letting Sasuke restart his testimony.

**Witness Testimony:**

So what if he had time to defend himself?

That doesn't change that Naruto tried to kill him!

Then after he did that he turned around and tried to kill me!

The dobe stabbed through the chest and cut it my arm

If Danzō hadn't shown up when he did, he probably would have killed the others too!

He's a dobe and a murderer and I'll gladly see him go to hell!

"Interesting. So the Hikoku tried to get rid of any witnesses! He's truly a despicable criminal. But I suppose we'll have to sit through one of the defense's foolish cross examinations again before we can sentence him." Danzō grumbled while giving a sideways glance to the caged swordsman.

_'Even with Hokage-sama watching his ass, Danzō's still as bullshit as ever. How troublesome.'_

**Cross Examination **

So what if he had time to defend himself?

That doesn't change that Naruto tried to kill him!

Then after he did that he turned around and tried to kill me!

The dobe stabbed through the chest and cut it my arm

**_Hold it!_**

"So Naruto attacked you and cut up you're arm correct?" Shikamaru pressed him much to the Uchiha's annoyance.

"Of course he did! Who else do you think did this Whitebeard!"

"And what sword did he use to do this?"

"It was the red one, I'm sure of it. Or are you going to question me more!" Sasuke answered smugly.

"Interesting. Would the prosecution please have the witness add this information to his testimony?" Shikamaru asked of the old lady sitting across from him, who quickly agreed.

"Of course Nara-san. The witness will add this statement to his testimony."

The sword who used to attack me was the red one, I'm sure of it.

**_Objection!_**

"That simply cannot be possible, because when I tested the sword for hemoglobin earlier this morning there wasn't a single drop of blood on it, much less yours." Shikamaru revealed, which made Sasuke even angrier than he was before.

"You were the one who took my sword dobe? How dare you take from what's rightfully mine as an elite!" Sasuke screamed, his sharingan now flaring with anger.

"First it wasn't your sword it was Naruto's. You had no right to take it while his innocence is still a possibility. Second you lied about the sword Naruto used to cause you those wounds. Explain yourself!" Shikamaru fired back.

"Who cares which sword that dobe used in our fight! The only thing that mattered is that he tried to kill the Kazekage and he should burn for it!" Sasuke revealed a crucial detail causing the court to go into an uproar.

This resulted in Danzō angrily hitting his gavel to bring back the silence "Uchiha-sama you came to blows with the Hikoku?"

"That's right! Me and the dobe fought four days ago! And since your all so curious I think I should tell you how I kicked his ass!"

"But this has no bearing on the case. If you just keep your mouth shut I can successfully declare my verdict." Danzō tried to sway his subordinate from speaking again. Needless to say it didn't work very well.

"Be quiet you old fart! I want everyone in this courtroom to know how much better I am than that dead last up in te cage. Especially his Hyuuga bitch in the audience." Sasuke blatantly ignored the judge, much to his anger and Shikamaru's satisfaction.

_'I was counting on his ego to screw himself over. We're nearing the endgame here!'_

**Witness Testimony**

After the dobe killed Gaara he went for me too.

I managed to avoid him though and a fight broke out.

It may have taken me a while but I defeated him.

But that's not surprising considering I'm and Uchiha and he's clanless orphan trash

Then some Division 13 showed up and took him in

"I still don't see how this relates to the case, but since it's testimony I have to let the defense cross-examine you. Nara, if you please." Danzō gestured to the defense from his seat, who followed the instruction.

**Cross Examination **

After the dobe killed Gaara he went for me too.

I managed to avoid him though and a fight broke out.

It may have taken me a while but I defeated him.

**_Objection!_**

"Honestly Sasuke this is starting to get pathetic. You may say that you beat Naruto, but this directly contradicts to what you told me yesterday. Yesterday you told me you lost the fight!" Shikamaru revealed, causing the courtroom to explode yet again. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it was with Sasuke.

The black-haired Nitatsu was practically red with anger at his loss being revealed and howled at Shikamaru "How dare you suggest that I, an elite, would lose to pond scum like him! It was practically a landslide victory!"

"Oh really? Then let's just read the last part of what you told me yesterday."

_"What is there to say anyways. We were on our way to the island when the Akatsuki attacked us and took out almost all of us before pouting that freakish statue at Naruto. That's when the coward used a substitution justu on Gaara to save himself. So I fought him to take him in…damnit…How could an elite like me have lost to such trash."_

"It must have been humiliating. Losing a fight that you yourself instigated I mean." Shikamaru suggested sending the courtroom into hysterics for the 75th time that day. That is until Chiyo spoke out.

**_Objection!_**

"While I do agree that the Uchiha lost his duel with Roronoa, what proof do you have that he did something to start the fight?" Chiyo asked angrily.

"I'm afraid that while I do have proof that Sasuke started the fight, he could still prove me wrong by testifying about how it was Naruto who started the fight."

"I agree. The witness will testify on this matter." Chiyo ordered Sasuke, who while still pissed off at the defense, complied.

"I hope you know what you're doing Shika-kun, because if we show that evidence at the wrong time, Danzō could put us in the toilet.

"I'm well aware of that believe me. But I've sat this troublesome case simply so I could present it, and now he's in my web." Shikamaru said confidently, but turned around in surprise when a yellow flash of light came from behind.

**"Hirashin"**

Both members of the denfense turned to see a tall cloaked man wearing a cat mask had suddenly appeared behind them. While many knew him as the ANBU captain known as Cat, few people knew that this was a living breathing Minato Namikaze in disguise.

"Excuse me young woman. Are you the one they call Temari Sabaku." Minato asked the fan wielding woman in front of him.

"Well that's my name so yes."

"I'm afraid you're needed for something highly important." The ANBU explained to which Temari nodded and stood up from her chair. With a small wave goodby Temari dissapeared in a flash of golden light with the man, leaving Shikamaru to face Sasuke's final testimony alone.

**(Cross Examination~Allegro 2007)**

**Witness Testimony**

You may suggest I actually lost to the dobe,

But I did absolutely nothing to start the fight.

It was all the dobe who tried to kill Gaara and attacked me!

Or do you have any proof to the contrary?

"That was a short testimony compared to others we've heard today. Now I'll make clear to the defense that I'll tolerate no foolishness. If you cannot offer reasonable proof Uchiha-sama did something to provoke the Hikoku, then I will produce a verdict."

"Understood your honor."

**Cross Examination **

You may suggest I actually lost to the dobe,

But I did absolutely nothing to start the fight.

It was all the dobe who tried to kill Gaara and attacked me!

Or do you have any proof to the contrary?

**_Objection!_**

"I do have proof teme! And it just so happens to be your own sword that we found at the bottom of the lake. A DNA test revealed that a slight amount of Naruto's blood was found on the blade. The blade you used to attack Naruto and provoke him!" Shikamaru claimed, though it was shut down five seconds later.

**_Objection!_**

"That doesn't prove anything! The blood on that sword on that sword could have been produced any time during the duel. You're going to have to do a lot bette than that."

Sasuke grinned when he heard the elderly prosecution strike down the claim and leered at Shikamaru, expecting to see him completely defeated. However to his shock, Shikamaru's demeanor hadn't faltered "I know that, I just think that letting evidence go to waste is a drag. I still have proof as to how Sasuke got Naruto to fight him."

"Hogwash! You have no more evidence!" Danzō tried to keep the lazy chunin quiet, which didn't work at all as he revealed damning evidence.

**_Take that!_**

"Is that chakra in a bottle? What does that have to do with anything?" Chiyo asked and quickly got her answer.

"It's another chakra sample taken from Gaara during his examination. And it just so happens Sasuke's chakra is mixed in with it. Now a commonly known fact about the Substitution Jutsu is that part of the user's chakra will be laced with the subject's body." Shikamaru said, getting closer and closer to his checkmate.

"Wait a minute, are you saying that-"

"You know exactly what I'm saying your honor. Sasuke provoked Naruto by killing Gaara in cold blood!" Shikamaru exclaimed pointing to the now frozen witness.

As the courtroom went into another frenzy, Chiyo opened her mouth to speak. But this time her wrinkled face was forming a large grin "Looks like you've finally figured out the truth! And I didn't even have to hold your hand."

"But you're the prosecution! Aren't you supposed to be on my side. Say something to shut this dobe up!" Sasuke yelled at Chiyo who merely glared at him.

"I'm on the side of truth, and the truth is you tried to kill my Kage four days ago. That's something I can't support. The prosecution re-" Right before Chiyo could end the trial fairly, Danzō interfered.

"Not so fast Chiyo. That evidence is clearly a forgery!" Danzō claimed much to the irritation of both the defense and prosecution.

"This coming from the person who forged two pieces of evidence this trial. You don't have a scrap of proof this evidence is forged."

"The truth is clear that the Uchiha is guilty!"

"Neither of you fools get it. You don't get a say in what the truth is. A man like me can decide the truth on a whim, and I've already decided Naruto is guilty. And as a result Sasuke will get his sword and rank. And if either of you even try to object I'll hold you in contempt! " Danzō smugly said as he raised his gavel.

_'You've got to be kidding me! Even when the truth is right in front of him he's still showing bias. Was all this really a lost cause?'_

"I hereby pronounce Roronoa Uzumaki Naruto g-"

**_Objection!_**

At the very last second, Temari broke through the doors holding what appeared to be a tape recorder in her hands, looking as determined as ever "I won't let you execute an innocent man! I have undeniable proof that Sasuke is guilty!"

"You really don't know when to quit do you Suna whore? Danzō's already decided his guilt, and neither of these fools can rest their cases. So you might as well give your body to me." Sasuke said lewdly at the girl as she walked across him to the defense desk.

His attitude changed a few moments later "Sorry teme but not even Danzō can deny this evidence. You confessed to the crime to both me and Shika-kun yesterday during our investigation."

"I thought I told you, you can't do a thing about that! It's my word against yours!" Sasuke regained his composure and mocked Temari who kept on smiling.

"Actually Sasuke, it's your word against yours." Temari said before clicking play on the tape recorder.

_"I groped your whore, and I was also the one who put Gaara in front of that statue when it fired. But guess what? There's nothing you can do about it. I'll make sure that dobe gets a guilty verdict and gets sentenced to death. And just for good measure I'll make sure that your Suna bitch is one of my wives when the South Blue becomes my domain. Along with the Hyuuga of course."_

When the record played the room went dead silent. Everyone from Shikamaru, to Chiyo, to Danzō had their mouths gaped wide. And Sasuke was shaking incredibly violently in rage. Only Temari seemed unaffected "An ANBU was recording the entire conversation. It's a hustle sweetheart."

Once she recovered from the surprise of the recording Chiyo took the chance to end the trial while Danzō was still frozen "The prosecution rests. Now Uchiha, I think it's time you gave us the truth."

"_You…want…_THE TRUTH!" Sasuke had now completely exploded from rage, lightning shot from every pore and his sharingan flashed on and off.

"Yes, we want the truth!" Shikamaru slammed his desk before repeating Chiyo's order.

"YOU WANT THE TRUTH!" Sasuke screamed yet again before turning his fists gold and slamming down on the witness stand, completely shattering it "SCUM LIKE YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN NARUTO, AND IT WAS COMMON KNOWLEDGE BACK IN THE ACADEMY! BUT THEN HE COMES BACK AFTER SIX YEARS WITH A BOUNTY AND A COUPLE OF SWORDS AND HE'S SUDDENLY HOT SHIT! THEN HE STARTED TAKING EVERYTHING THAT WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE AWAY FROM ME! ALL BECAUSE OF THE DAMNED SWORD! DOBE TRASH LIKE HIM DOESN'T DESERVE POWER LIKE THAT, IT SHOULD BELONG TO THE ELITE! SO I MADE A PLAN TO FRAME HIM FOR MURDER AND TAKE HIS WEAPONS, STATUS, RANK, WOMAN, EVERYTHING THAT SHOULD BELONG TO AN ELITE LIKE ME! AND YOU, OR HIM, OR ANYONE ELSE WON'T STOP ME FROM MAKING THIS WRETCHED SEA MINE! IT CAN ONLY BELONG TO AN ELITE AVENGER LIKE ME!"

**"Tatsu Maki"**

Naruto used Mutoryu to cut himself from the cage, before drawing Kurama over to him and glaring at Sasuke "For the record I could've done that at anytime."

"Let's end this dobe!" Sasuke screamed insanely before charging at his rival.

**"Superiority Hammer"**

**"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson"**

Naruto quickly defeated Sasuke once again, cutting into the insane Uchiha and knocking him unconscious. It was at that point Naruto turned to the marines "Would somebody arrest this lunatic already?"

The Marines quickly followed the order, picking up the unconscious and bleeding Sasuke before putting kairoseki handcuffs on him and dragging him away. It was then Shikamaru heard beeping noises coming from the Kage section, and smiled as he saw the results.

_Hokage: Innocent_

_Acting Kazekage: Innocent _

_Tsuchikage: Innocent_

_Mizukage: Innocent_

_Raikage: Innocent_

"We did it!" Temari cheered before pulling her boyfriend into a passionate kiss, one he quickly returned.

"Watch the PDA you two." A nearby voice teased them from up front. The pair broke the kiss and turned to see it came from Gaara, now completely awake and very happy.

"Wait a minute here I can explain!" Shikamaru said frantically, trying to avoid being crushed in a wad of sand.

"Don't worry I understand, but we'll take care of that in the lobby." Gaara told Shikamaru with a warm smile only for it to turn into a glare which he pointed towards the other Kage "Now then this is a trial is it not? So what shall Sasuke Uchiha's sentence for the murder of Division 3 Captain Ibiki Morino and attempted murder of me be?"

"I think that's up to you Kazekage-sama, you were the one who he tried to kill." Sarutobi told the younger leader, who nodded in response.

"Very well. I hereby sentence Sasuke Uchiha to life imprisonment in Level Four of Impel Down and officially adjourn this court!"

* * *

Needless to say there were two different reactions to the unexpected conclusion of the trial. While many elated that the truth had been uncovered in the end, others thought the trial was rigged against Sasuke and that Naruto escaped hair guilty verdict. But whatever they believed, that didn't change the fact the Uchiha was going to spend the rest of his life in Impel Down.

Still angered by this outcome, the detractors of Naruto quickly took their anger out on the defense, resulting in Temari knocking down the section a majority seemed to have been coming from with a large gust of wind. Now they were all in the Hikoku lobby, with Naruto cracking open a bottle of sake to celebrate.

"Danzō-teme sure did have you guys on the ropes there for a while. There were a couple of times I thought we were screwed!" Naruto said with a grin on his face, before chugging down the bottle of sake.

"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence Naruto." Shikamaru growled at his recently acquitted friend, before looking to the doorway as he heard the sound of footsteps coming in. To his surprise it was Gaara, Kankuro, and his father Shikaku "What are you guys doing here?"

"We just came to congratulate you guys on a job well done is all! I loved it when you played that recording in front of he entire courtroom Neechan!" Kankuro praised his older sister while Gaara walked up to Naruto.

"I'm truly sorry for all the trouble I've caused you over the past few days. I hope that injuries from the ordeal will heal quickly and without any scarring." Gaara told his friend who didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"Hey no worries. If anything this whole thing gave me a higher pain threshold, and Jiisama is gong to lock up those ROOT bastards for breaking his law. And I can only imagine what he's going to do to Danzō-teme."

When he finished talking to Naruto, the now former Jinchuriki turned his attention to Shikamaru with an angry glare "There's just one thing I wanted to say to you Nara!…Arigato."

"…Wait a minute, aren't you going to force feed me 100 gallons of sand and rip me apart from the inside out or something?" Shikamaru asked Gaara in shock.

"No Shikamaru-san, you proved today that you can go to your limit to protect your friends. I just hope you can protect my sister even more than them. You have my blessing." Gaara said with a warm smile.

"When's the wedding?" Kankuro teased resulting in a sharp elbow from Temari and a snide remark from Shikamaru.

"Honestly Kankuro, you're as bad as my mother." Shikamaru grumbled before turning to his father "I get why these two showed up, but why did you come here Otou-san?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten gaki. Reaper and Heartless will be back for Asuma's body tommorow, probably with a whole army of minor agents. And I don't think they'll be happy that we cremated him." Shikaku revealed in a grim tone of voice, much to the shock of everyone in the room.

"You've gotta kidding me! Those immortal lunatics are coming back with an army? What the hell are we going to do know?" Kankuro began to panic only for Shikamaru to stand up.

"That's the second half of my plan. Taking down Sasuke was only the beginning. What do you think Naruto?" Shikamaru asked his friend, knowing full well what the answer would be.

Naruto clicked Kuruma from its sheath before saying with a glare "Well these Akatsuki bastards have invaded our homes, hunted us down like animals, and mercilessly killed our friends. I think we should show them how big a mistake that was."

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Hidan the Reaper**

**Kakazu the Heartless **

**Deidera the Artist**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Kisame Hoshigaki **

**Itachi Uchiha**

**Zetsu Frankenstein **

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): I hope you enjoyed the badass cliffhanger from this one as opposed to the ones from last time! But unfortunately for the few Sasuke fans who read this story, this will be his last appearance till the tail end. Which I could not be happier about! On another note, don't expect the next chapter to come out as quickly. The only reason I sped up on this one because I didn't want to leave you hanging with that for very long. The next one might take a bit longer. But the good news is it's only five weeks till summer. And this time I won't either be not working on this story until July, or be on and interarc hiatus. So expect a real marathon when I'm not working. Assuming I can get a job.**

**Till then!**

**. . .**


	27. Asuma's Legacy

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then Pell surviving would have made sense!**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 25: Asuma's Legacy**

* * *

Today was not a good day for the Santatsu Foundation. Today their plan to get rid of Naruto had been a devastating failure, and they'd lost another one of their Nitatsu, Sasuke Uchiha. Orochimaru made his distaste for this outcome very clear "You foolsssss! Becausssssse of your ineptitude, not only have we lossssssst one of our most promissssssing Nitatsssssssu again, but we've alss sssso lossssssst a potential new body for me. Firssssst Kabuto and now thisssssss?"

"Calm down Orochimaru. We managed to get Kabuto released, and I'm sure we can get the Uchiha released soon enough as well." Danzō said serenely while sipping his tea, despite still seething with inner rage at his defeat yesterday.

"Besides he went against the plan we assigned him to yesterday, and tried to betray us. If he'd just killed Naruto instead of Gaara, then we'd have no more obstacles in the creation of the tower. If you ask me we should just let him rot in his grave." Tobi said dully, kneeling against the armrest of his throne.

"Oh yesssssss, I'd forgotten about Naruto-kun. Danzō-kun, what do you think we ssssshhhhould do conccccccerning the Kyuubi brat?" Orochimaru asked his ally, who cringed in response.

Despite his hatred for the swordsman, Danzō quickly regained his cool and spoke again "Heartless and Reaper are mounting another invasion later today correct Tobi? Let them destroy the demon. In the meantime we need to find a new construction zone for the tower."

"No problem there. I found an island in the New World called Wooden Stone that would be good. Think you could start construction while this whole Akatsuki war is going on Orochimaru?" Tobi asked the snake sannin, who quickly replied.

"Of courssssse Tobi-kun, I'll put my besssssssst men on it. If there are any problemssssssss I'll jusssssst head over there mysssssself."

* * *

"Hey Ms. Akimichi is Chouji here? I need to talk to him about something." Shikamaru explained to the stocky woman, who pointed to another door in the house.

"He's near the hill out back!" The woman informed the chunin leading him outside.

Shikamaru walked around the gravelly terrain looking for his best friend, expecting him to be somewhere nearby. While there were no signs of Chouji being there at first, Shikamaru quickly followed the sounds of his stomach growling from nearby. When he had the overweight shinobi, he had literally dug himself into a hole nearby.

"Looks like you really dug yourself deep huh?"

"Shikamaru!" Chouji cheerfully said before once again collapsing in hunger. Thankfully for him, Shikamaru had brought a basket of rice balls down with him, which were quickly consumed by Chouji who jumped back up the pit "I heard you're getting some people to go fight the Akatsuki today. When are we going?"

"In about thirty minutes. I would have gotten you earlier but it's easier to move a mountain to wake Naruto up. And I had to have Chojūro keep Roshi away from Ino." Shikamaru explained the situation, though Chouji didn't seem to care.

"Who else is going to be there?"

"Well Fuu seemed to want to go, and we needed a jounin commander so Kakashi-sensei's going too. I just hope he and Naruto can work together again." Shikamaru said awkwardly only to be dragged to the village gates by his much larger friend.

"What are we waiting for! Let's get going!"

"What a drag! Literally this time!"

In no time at all the two shinobi had made it to the gates where the rest of the team was waiting. Having been angry at having to stand there during a race against the clock, Ino scolded her teammates "What's taking you two so long? An army of homicidal maniacs is heading our way and we haven't even left the village yet."

"I don't know what you're complaining about. You're the one who took forever with getting ready." Shikamaru said while brushing off the dust on him clothes and explaining the strategy "We know that both of these guys have Devil Fruit powers that make them immortal. The priest from Isuki Pīku has one that can allow him to have multiple hearts, and replace one whenever it's destroyed. And the Ochichite that killed Asuma-sensei can reflect your attacks back at you like a voodoo doll."

"You mean like Basil Hawkins right?" Naruto asked his lazy friend.

"Close but no. This guy can only focus on one person at a time, and it's a lot less random. As long as their together then it doesn't matter what we do to the Ochichite, the priest will just sew him back up. So I'll lure the Ochichite away and trick him by injecting the blood of his partner onto the scythe. Till then Chouji will hold him off. When he looks like he's having a heart attack, Kakashi will fry all his hearts in one fell swoop. The rest of you will keep the minor agents away untill that happens."

"The priest is that green eyed guy Lee took down back then right?" Chouji asked before slamming his fists together "I can take care of him no problem!"

"Alright then, if we have no other problems we can get going. And any Jinchuriki should watch their backs. They already have two, so we don't need to give them anymore." Shikamaru said before taking off at lightning speed with the others following him.

Meanwhile Naruto was immersed in his own thoughts _'The minor agents shouldn't be too. Joh of a problem; most of them probably aren't that much stronger than Ikō was. But then there are those others. I have a feeling I only saw a fraction of Kakuzu's real power back in that trap. And Hidan's a real wild card. Can we really beat them so easily?'_

Naruto turned his attention to the others _'Kakashi won't come within seven feet of me. And then there's Chouji. I know he'll try to fight Kakuzu on his own.'_

_'I have to beat this guy. Or at least hold him off until Shikamaru goes through with the plan.'_

_'I'm coming for you Ochichite-teme."_

* * *

"I don't know what I was complaining about. This new method is great! Certainly saves me the trouble of having to sit still for three days." Hidan said as swept through the forest with Kakuzu and his small army "But still it's a pain how we have to take a detour to Konoha."

"Do you want to be ambushed? After attacks like the one Genius and Justice pulled 5 days ago, odds are the Allies will be out out for blood. And they know which ones of us have Devil Fruits and which ones don't." Kakuzu explained to his partner who still seemed annoyed.

Eventually the group of Akatsuki members made it to what had used to be part of the forest. However one could tell something happened to send it into a rotted state, with dead trees, invasive moss, and dust devils at every corner of the biome. Hidan took a particular liking to the area.

"Man this place reeks of death. Just my kind of style; we won't have much longer will we?" Hidan asked before one of the agents suddenly fired at a nearby bird, shocking him "What the hell was that? Are you trying to get us killed?"

"He was right to do that Reaper. That bird was being possessed by a Yamanaka, so that means we're being tracked by Konoha-nin. Nice work rookie." Kakuzu complimented the agent in a rare moment of compassion.

"Thank you Heartless-senpai"

The group then began walking again, going for several minutes before noticing the shadows trailing them. In response the army moved in different directions to avoid the trap. This backfired on them when they walked right into another, in the form of explosive kunai knives.

While a majority slid out of the way in time, several members were caught in the blast. Now knowing for certain that the enemy was near Kakuzu warned his army "Look out for the shadows!"

"It's not just the shadows you need to worry about." Naruto whispered through the sword in his mouth while maneuvering behind and Hidan and trying to strike the immortal with his sword. This failed when Hidan used what was left of his scythe, and the two engaged in a struggle with their respective blades.

"Submit to the power of Jashin Kyuubi!"

"Screw you I'm a Buddhist!"

After this struggle lasted a few more seconds, they pushed each other away and back onto the ground. And in Hidan's case right into the path of another explosive. Or what was thought to be an explosive; in actuality they were a pair of trench knives. The two leaders tried to move, but quickly found that they couldn't.

**"Shadow Possession Shuriken Jutsu"**

"Get that pointy haired bastard." One of the agents yelled before they all charged towards Shikamaru with their weapons armed. However they quickly found a large portion of their ranks had been knocked out by Naruto.

**"Onigiri"**

"Those trench knives take on the chakra of their user, so as such they take on my Shadow Jutsu. They used to belong to the man you killed five days ago, Asuma Sarutobi. And for the record I don't think you'll get much money for his ashes."

"I like your strategy gaki. But the one thing I like more than anything else is-"

"Oh shut up Kakuzu! Stop complimenting this kid, he's completely screwed us over!"

"You're right about that. This was finished the moment I caught you!" Shikamaru said as he stretched his shadow into the knife's range, trapping the serial killer before removing the knife "Chouji now!"

**"Spiked Human Boulder"**

In response to the order Chouji blew up his size and dropped onto Kakuzu, only for his arm to suddenly shoot from the ground and remove the knife. This allowed Heartless to escape right before he could be crushed "Don't be so arrogant Nara. You only know a small portion of what my Devil Fruit can do."

"You may have a tough power, but I still control your partner." Shikamaru exclaimed before having Hidan attack with the scythe again, forcing Kakuzu back again.

"What the hell am I supposed to do here?"

"Nothing. Don't just stand there you idiots, stop the Nara!" Kakuzu ordered the army who quickly followed. However they quickly halted upon being attacked by the others.

**"Tatsu Maki"**

**"Buzzsaw Piranha"**

**"Sparkle Cannon"**

**"Mind Liquification Jutsu"**

**"Lava Release: Scorching Armored Fist"**

**"Lightning release: Purple Lightning"**

While the fight raged on in front of him, Kakuzu winced as he found himself backed against the tree. Things only got worse for him when a large spiky ball fell upon him.

**"Spiked Human Boulder"**

**"Earth Release: Earth Spear"**

When the dust cleared Chouji smiled, only to gape in shock when he saw his attack had no effect on the Akatsuki chairman "You can't touch me as long as I have that Jutsu in my ranks. Nothing can break through my shell. Not as long as I have it on!"

**"Shining Blade " **

Kakuzu had let his guard down both figuratively and literally, allowing Fuu to fly over and run Chomei through him causing light to shine out of his every pore. Once she was sure the man was dead, Fuu jumped back and smiled as he fell back, only for Shikamaru to explain.

"Don't get too excited Fuu-san. This guys immortal too, he'll just resurrect." Shikamaru explained while Kakuzu rose up again and the pieces of a mask fell from the hole in his back. Unfortunately for Fuu, she had no time to respond and Kakuzu moved behind her and kicked her into a nearby tree.

"Great, now I only have three hearts left. Looks like I'll have to start fighting for real." Kakuzu groaned before taking off his cloak, revealing hundreds of stitches and four masks lining his back which he shot out with a scream of incredible pain.

**"Kardiac Ogre"**

When the attack was finished, four black monsters formed from the masks, and scars left behind on Kakuzu's back healed automatically. Shikamaru and Chouji prepared to fight once again only for the one with a hole in its mask to keel over before melting into a puddle.

"You're girlfriend and sensei can't save you now fatass. Think you can take on all of my hearts and me?" Kakuzu asked smugly while Chouji stressfully ate into his bag of chips.

"Finally. Maybe now we can finally get something done around here." Hidan said happily while picking his ear, only to start involuntarily running in the other direction and through the skirmish by Shikamaru, being forced to drop his scythe along the way.

"I'll see you guys in a bit; I'm going to a quick walk with this bastard. Try not to get killed!" Shikamaru said to his friends while running as fast he could into forest, much to Hidan's anger.

"DAMNIT!"

* * *

Thanks to the level of speed Shikamaru was running with, they were able to enter the nearby forest in only a small amount of time. While this was good for Shikamaru, Hidan was very upset by this turn of events "Damn you gaki! You think splitting me and Kakuzu up will change anything? You're going to die either way!"

"Sorry pal, but I'm not the one who's dying today." Shikamaru continued to sprint as fast as he could through the woods, before estimating they'd made it far enough and stopping. Without releasing Hidan, he tossed explosive tags hanging from ninja wire around the forest, before running out of endurance ability and letting Hidan free of his hold.

Noticing the jutsu holding him had been released, Hidan sneered at his younger opponent "Well that only lasted about five minutes. You gonna fight me for real now? Because you've made this almost too easy!"

Now into full psychotic mode Hidan switched out his secondary weapon and began slashing, though Shikamaru expertly dodged while being careful not to hit any of the explosives he laced around the small clearing. Eventually he managed to hit Shikamaru but was annoyed to find it was only a log.

"Come out and show yourself coward!" Hidan howled angrily only to notice the shadow coming near him. He quickly jumped up onto the trees nearby and jabbed his blade into the tree. Silently reaching into his kunai pouch, he examined the woods carefully to look for Shikamaru. After a few minutes of searching, he found him and threw his kunai.

**"Shadow Shield Jutsu"**

Before the projectile blades could make contact with the chunin's skin, shadow wires shot up for the ground and caught the shuriken on their path. Unfortunately this made Shikamaru an even bigger target, causing Hidan to jump from the tree, blade armed and maniacally laughing on the way down. Shikamaru barely had enough to roll out of the way and toss his own weapons at the reaper.

Unfortunately Hidan deflected all of them easily with his blade, and quickly made it up to Shikamaru. Shikamaru raised his hands to guard and jumped back to avoid getting stabbed, only receiving a small cut on his cheek. But that one cut was all Hidan needed, as he licked the blood of the blade and his skin changed color to match that of his Devil Fruit power.

"You've been a real pain in my ass kid. Instead of having fun with you I just want to rid this world of you nice and quick!" Hidan said with an insane grin while raising his blade "And if you though what I did to your teacher was bad, what I'll do to the Suna girl is even worse. I'll show her the _other_ ways Jashin is so powerful before I sacrifice her!"

"Kiss my ass." Shikamaru said disgustedly before falling over, apparently dead from the stab through the heart.

When he was sure his opponent was dead, Hidan let his Devil Fruit power fade and began to walk out of the explosive filled clearing with his mood shifting back to his lazy and irritable old self "Guess that's over with. Maybe I should've left him alive for a bit to play with him. Well what's past is past. Should probably head back soon to kill the rest of them and call Pein-sama so he can get the Jinchuriki. Hope Kakuzu isn't to pissy when I get the-"

**"Shadow Possession Jutsu"**

Hidan felt his heart drop near his kidneys when he suddenly froze in his tracks, almost completely paralyzed from an unknown force behind him. He used his peripheral vision to peek at the corner of his sight, barely seeing that Shikamaru was standing and full of life " How the hell are you still moving? How are you even still alive."

"You really should watch where you swing your weapon. You might hurt your comrades by mistake." Shikamaru smirked at the question before making another handsign. A handsign that would spell complete defeat for the man in front of him, as well as his partner only a couple hundred yards away.

* * *

About ten minutes earlier another battle between the Akatsuki and the Allies was about to reach its climax. The combatants appeared to be money obsessed treasurer of the Akatsuki, Kakuzu the Heartless, and the only one of the Dead Lasts of Konoha's New Generation not to be a chunin and heir to the Akimichi Clan, Chouji Akimichi.

_'Alright Chouji, no matter what you can't lose to this guy. You're not going to fall behind like you did in the Exams.'_

_'Foolish brat, does he honestly think he has a chance of beating me? I've taken the hearts and black market bounties of several legendary shinobi. With the Jinchuriki and Kakashi preoccupied with our platoon, he'll have no one to save him.'_

While the two stood off with the heart monsters nearby, Kakashi watched while concurrently fighting minions with the others in the group of Akatsuki agents _'I hope you know what you're doing Chouji. I know you want to fight Heartless on your own, but if things get to messy I'm stepping in.'_

"So fatass. What do you think you're going to do to beat me? Are you going to sit on me or something?" Kakuzu taunted his overweight opponent, much to the latter's ire.

Despite the anger from his pet peeve being pushed, Chouji simply finished chewing the chip he was chewing and pulled out a container with three different colored pills inside "Not exactly. I know that to beat you I'll need to bring out the big guns."

"What that? You going to have one final binge eat before I take your heart?" Kakuzu continued to mock Chouji who popped open the top to the green pill "Let me guess? Food pills?"

"Not just any Food Pills, they're my clan's Three Coloured Pills. This is the Spinach Pill which grants me temporary strength beyond imagination." Chouji said while removing the pill from its container and swallowing it in one gulp.

"Unimaginable strength eh? Let's test that theory shall we?" Kakuzu said unimpressed while sending the Lightning Mask after his opponent. In response to the beast heading his way, Chouji performed his own attack which made him the size of a small building.

**"Expansion Jutsu: Titan Style"**

When the black mass made it up to him, Chouji began continuously upper cutting and cross blowing the creature across its mask. Not allowing his opponent a single moment to counter, Chouji continued his boxing attack, planning to keep going until the heart's mask broke and it was destroyed. However it briefly managed to avoid one of the punches and grapple onto the overweight man, before unleashing its own attack.

**"Lighting Release: False Darkness"**

Chouji doubled back as he was blasted by the black lighting being fired from the creature's mask, only for Kakuzu himself to charge with his skin hardened by Earth. Once his opponent was pinned Kakuzu used threads coming from the ground to swing him around like a rag doll.

When he finally landed on the ground, Chouji gasped deep breaths when finally able to take a short break. That is until he saw Kakuzu coming down upon him. When he saw the pseudo-immortal man come down on him, Chouji punched back keeping the man off him and launching him back into the air. Kakuzu made a clean landing a few seconds later, only to wince when he saw another ball of spikes heading towards him.

**"Spiked Human Boulder"**

Despite the threatening appearance of the attack, Kakuzu didn't falter and blocked Chouji with his own skin hardened. Once he felt the rotation of the mass slow down, Kakuzu smirked under his mask while preparing for one of his other masks to attack when he was sure that his opponent was held in place.

**"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work"**

Once the flame was made around him, Kakuzu let Chouji go and let him roll straight into one of the nearby trees. When Chouji recovered he still found himself aflame, and ran around desperately looking for a way to extinguish the fire engulfing his body.

"Was that a little too hot for you fatass? Maybe you'd like a bit of water." Kakuzu taunted the screaming Akimichi while preparing his next attack.

**"Water Release: Water Formation Wall"**

The giant wall of water spewing from Kakuzu's mouth knocked Chouji right into another moss covered tree. Dazed and confused inside the hollow bark of the tree, Chouji tried to get back up, but found that he was being held down by something. He looked to his wrists and ankles were being held down by Kakuzu's threads.

He felt a deep and fearful pit growing in his stomach, which only grew when he saw Kakuzu approaching him. But that fear turned to anger when he saw what the Akatsuki chairman had gripped in his hands; his bag of chips "Pathetic, you couldn't even destroy one of my hearts before I defeated you. But at least I get something out of this besides another heart."

Chouji seethed with rage when Kakuzu took off his mask to reveal a scarred and stitched up mouth, which he put the last chip into. However his focus was diverted again when he felt the threads tearing at his armor, eventually getting to his bare chest. With his target restrained and in plain view, Kakuzu pulled out a black marker which he used to encircle Chouji's heart, before preparing to go in for the kill.

"I'll just use your heart to replace the ones that #7 and Kotetsu. Maybe I'll have my next heart be Kakashi-san." Kakuzu flexed his bare hand in preparation to rip his opponent's heart out from his chest.

**"Tora Gari"**

When he saw his friend on death's door in front of him, Naruto broke away from the army in an attempt to cut down Kakuzu before he lost another friend to the Akatsuki. But before he could, Kakuzu suddenly collapsed with a heart attack before his hand could reach Chouji's chest.

Chouji smiled as his limbs were released from the severely loosened threads, and Kakuzu writhed in agony in front of him "All according to plan. Nice work Shikamaru."

* * *

"What the hell is going on here? You're supposed to be dead!" Hidan screamed in rage as though he felt death not but a few moments ago, Shikamaru was still kicking right in front of him.

"You really should observe things more carefully you know. When you cut me earlier, I didn't actually bleed at all. I just injected the blood from this capsule onto your blade so you'd think I killed you. And the blood is from when Kotetsu snapped your partner's neck five days ago. So you just gave us a huge advantage over him. And that was our plan."

"You damn brat!" Hidan screamed in pure rage, though he couldn't act on the rage with Shikamaru still holding him down. But after a few moments he'd calmed down "But it's not like it matters anymore. With your Jutsu wearing down I can move again!"

Shikamaru winced as he picked his switchknife back up with killing intent emanating from every pore "The longer you use that jutsu, the shorter the time limit is for the next time. And while you're almost out of chakra, I'm still revved up and ready to kill!"

"How troublesome looks like you've got me figured out!"" Shikamaru grumbled fearfully as Hidan raised the blade above him with intent to stab him to death.

"Now beg Jashin for forgiveness." Hidan cried midstab, only for his arm to stop before he could pierce Shikamaru's flesh. He turned to realize that he was being restrained by a shadow coming from the nearby ninja wire.

**"Shadow Gathering Jutsu"**

Just when Hidan thought his situation couldn't get worse, the shadows on the wire all retracted and coated him with explosive tags. Now bloody and trapped Hidan panted "You still have chakra?"

"Damn straight." Shikamaru said with a smile on his face to his defeated nemesis, before throwing a kunai near a target on the ground, causing a large crevice to open up underneath Hidan, only being suspended by ninja wire "It pays to plan ahead don't you think?"

"T-this was all part of your plan? You've been playing me for a fool all this time?!"

"Sorry bastard, but when you curse someone you dig your own grave. You brought this on yourself." Shikamaru said while pulling out Asuma's lighter and playing with it again.

"Are you some sort of idiot? I'm immortal remember? All I'll have to do is wait in that hole until Pein-sama sends some agents to dig me back up. Then I'll come for you, your whore, and your whole damn clan!" Hidan swore revenge maniacally while hanging from the wires. That is until he saw a family of deer nearby.

"You think I wouldn't account for that? What a drag. My clan owns these acres of woods, so we'll make sure that nothing gets in or out of these woods. Including you." Shikamaru explained before tossing the lighter and blowing Hidan to pieces. Knowing his work wasn't done, he looked into the pit to see Hidan's screaming disembodied head.

"This isn't over gaki! Even if I have to eat my way out of this hole I'll still find you. Even if it's centuries from now I'll get out just to piss on your grave! You hear me up there?" Hidan continued to howl "Jashin will strike you down for this!"

"Unfortunately for you I don't believe in that God. The only one handing down judgement today is me. Have fun starving to death in your grave." Shikamaru said bitterly before tossing another explosive into the hole, causing an avalanche to fall onto Hidan.

"Don't play God with me gaki! Jashin will rip out your intestines and hang you from the Adam tree with them! And he'll do it through me! All I need is my teeth! This isn't the end of me! This isn't the-" Hidan continued with his threats until he was finally completely buried.

With Asuma avenged Shikamaru began his trek back out of the forest "Guess that's done. Hope that gave the others the opportunity to finish the other one off."

* * *

While his partner was facing defeat, Kakuzu got back up from the fatal heart attack by placing the fire heart into his body while coughing up the pieces of his earth heart's mask. When he saw that Chouji was now free from his binds, Kakuzu's anger only increased.

"Do you honestly think that the plan that brain-dead slacker came up with will stop me. Besides Artist, Reaper is the weakest out of any of our chairman. Where as I have decades of experience." Kakuzu said before sending his Lightning heart after the overweight shinobi in front of Chouji wasn't afraid and popped open the container for the Curry pill.

"Time to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach." Chouji said before swallowing the pill.

"You're even dumber than I originally expected. Don't you know that each group has a weakest link, and that's you. The Nara probably just had you fight me as a distraction for someone like Kakashi or Roshi to ambush me. Face it kid your cannon fodder." Kakuzu continued to prod at Chouji while preparing to open fire.

**"Lightning Release: False Darkness"**

**"Partial Leg Expansion Jutsu"**

Chouji predicted the creature's attack and leapt up into the air with his leg turned giant. Before it could fire, Chouji kicked down onto its head and slammed its jaw shut, though the lightning didn't stop. Within seconds the mask had blown up with the heart along with it.

With all but two of his opponent's hearts destroyed in the fight, Chouji grinned as he let his arms shrink back to normal size. This was celebrated too earlier as he felt a larger field of threads came out of from the ground to restrain him again. To make matters worse the effects of the curry pill were wearing off and Kakuzu was doing something else.

**"Earth Grudge Fear"**

Now Kakuzu had completely absorbed his wind mask which was sticking out his back from above, and his arms extended from the threads coming out. They also come out from his back and even his mouth, looking at Chouji with pure hatred "It's been awhile since I've lost this many hearts in the span of one week. I'll just have to replace them with you and the ones that aren't Jinchuriki down there. I'm going to turn you into a terutueru and rip your heart out. Then I'll let Jungle Rot take care of the rest. And don't try resisting, those wires are stronger than iron."

Despite these warnings Chouji used what strength he had left to reach into his pocket and grab the final remaining pill _'All my life I've been a punching bag to the people around me. The kids at school. Sakura. Sasuke. And now even the other Dead Lasts are catching up to me. And if I die here, there's a chance he could overpower the others. Or worse, one of the others might back him up. I can't take that risk. If I'm dying here today, I'm taking him with me! …Kakashi-sensei…Naruto…Ino…Fuu…Roshi…Shikamaru…please don't blame yourselves, this is my own choice.'_

**"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work"**

**"Wind Release: Pressured Damage"**

Kakuzu relapsed a large twister of fire from his mouth towards Chouji, finally stopping when was sure that he'd been roasted alive. But to his surprise, after cutting off the attack Chouji was nowhere to be found. He only realized where he was after being hit across the face.

**"Super Open Hand Slap"**

"That was for taking the bite of my favorite chip flavor." When Kakuzu got a better look at his opponent, he seemed much different from before. All of Chouji's fat had temporarily turned into muscle, and large butterfly wings of chakra protruded from his back. Before he had time to attack again, Chouji grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground "And that's for calling me fatass this whole fight!"

"How did you get so strong? And how did you free yourself from my binds?" Kakuzu asked as he struggled desperately to escape.

"It was easy work with the Chili Pill. Now there's something else I need to hit you for. I can handle being picked on, it's happened all my life; but what you've done is unforgivable. Brain dead slacker? You insulted my best friend in the entire world right to my face. Not to mention you Akatsuki bastards are responsible for the deaths of Kiba and Asuma-sensei! You can steal my food and call me names, but you will never harm friends. Not without paying the ultimate price!"

"No this can't be happening! I refuse to be defeated by a big fat dobe like you!" Kakuzu cried out in one last attempt while Chouji raised his fist.

"I'm not a big fat dobe! I'm _the _big fat dobe!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

**"Butterfly Bullet Bombing"**

The devastating blow pounded Kakuzu into the ground, destroying his wind heart in no time at all. And while his fire heart remained intact, he couldn't move with it any longer thanks to his spinal cord snapping. With his opponent down for the count and the Chili pill wearing off, Chouji fell backwards with words from his past in mind.

_"Come on Chouji. Show this mummy jerk who's boss."_

_•_

_"Yeah I've been training harder ever since Naruto beat me. Learning new Jutsu, lifting weights."_

_"Eating dog food."_

_"Eating dog food, wait what!?" Kiba realized what he had just said._

_"Made you say it!" _

_"Why you fat bastard!"_

_"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME? I'M NOT FAT!"_

_•_

_"Are you really so dense Kiba. The man you've been insulting is right in front of you."_

_•_

_"Chouji, your without a doubt one of the deepest and kindest people I've ever met in my life. I know that in time you'll become a stronger ninja than anyone else. Just stay confident, and try to lose a few pounds on the way."_

_•_

_"I'll see you guys in a bit; I'm going to a quick walk with this bastard."_

_'Guess I found some really great friends. Thank you all.' _Chouji thought to himself before slipping into unconsciousness.

"Chouji!" Ino screamed in fear and ran up to her dying teammate right after dispatching the remaining Akatsuki agents. It was then she turned her anger to Kakashi "I thought you were going to intervene if something like this was going to happen! Or did you just decide he wasn't worth the effort since his surname wasn't Uchiha?"

While Kakashi winced at the girl's hostility, and looked down in shame for the results. That is until Naruto stepped up to defend him "There's another reason Kakashi-senpai didn't intervene Ino. Because Chouji's pride depended on this fight. If Kakashi had stopped the fight and saved him, he would consider that a defeat. Chouji knew the consequences and told Kakashi to let him fight. I'm not saying it's right, but sometimes pride is worth dying for to a man."

"Do you have any ideas how stupid that sounds Naruto? What good is pride if your dead?" Ino screamed at the swordsman whose expression didn't falter.

Naruto then pointed towards the barely alive Kakuzu nearby "Because true pride is what separates us from pathetic creatures like that."

"I can't believe this. Even after all these years of living, my death is at the hands of a bunch of snot nosed gakis fresh out of the academy." Kakuzu grumbled at his fate before noticing Roshi approaching, while brandishing Son Goku.

"Don't be too surprised old-timer. With new techniques and ideas being formed in a new sea everyday, the next generation will always surpass the one before it. To these snot nosed gakis, you're just an old fart who's time on this earth has long since passed." Roshi monologued to the Akatsuki Chairman before swinging his hammer down and smashing Kakuzu's head like a pumpkin.

"There, all done with that. Chouji's lucky the Nara clan made a serum counteract the effects of those pills. Otherwise he'd be dead right now." Naruto said while pulling out the needle in his large friends arm.

"Odd for someone like you to save a life instead of taking one Roronoa." Chōjuro growled bitterly to the swordsman before his demeanor went back to its normal shy and meek version when he heard Chouji start to move again "Chouji, are you okay?"

"I'm still alive? I beat him guys. I beat an Akatsuki chairman." Chouji said weakly only for Ino to begin violently shaking him.

"Who cares you idiot? You almost died just now and you don't even care! Do you have any idea how scared we all were? And what would Shikamaru say?"

"Don't give him too much hell Ino, he's not out of the woods just yet." Naruto said with a happy smile seeing his friend still alive. But he then turned his attention to the other swordsman nearby _'This guy's attitude completely changes when it comes to me. I don't know what I did to piss him off so much, but one thing's for certain. This man hates me with every fiber of his being.'_

"Hey, is it just me or is the entire world shaking?" Fuu asked about the sudden rumbling of the ground around her.

"I thought I told to stay off your feet Fuu-chan. Heartless hit you really hard earlier, so it probably caused some trauma." Ino admonished the female Jinchuriki only to feel the shuddering herself "But now that you mention, I do feel something rumbling."

Ino then got a really bad feeling with her psychic instinct, and turned in the direction it was coming from. She screamed in shock when she saw the Demonic Outer Path Statue walking towards them, carrying Yahiko and all six of his paths on it's back "So you're little alliance managed to defeat Reaper and Heartless? That's a shame, I guess it's time I take matters into my own hands."

"Really Skillet, we're ending like this again? Just end the damn chapter already." Naruto angrily growled to author about to close out.

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Deidera the Artist**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Kisame Hoshigaki **

**Itachi Uchiha**

**Zetsu Frankenstein **

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): I like how when I say it will be awhile till the next update I get a new chapter out in like a week, but when I say a new chapter's coming soon it takes like a month. But this time I know the next chapter will take a bit longer since I'm switching back to Voodoo's Disciple for a bit, and I tend to focus on only one story at a time. Even so I'll try to get a new chapter of this out by June. On another note who expected _Chouji _to fight Kakuzu? I bet you a lot of the Akatsuki fights this arc will be like that, with the exception of the obvious. You have any predictions leave them in a review. Looks like this arc's conflict is starting to pick up though. What will happen with Pein joining the fight again? Will Ichigo and Kakashi ever reconcile? And why does Chōjuro hate Naruto so much? Find out next time on…Holy shit I'm turning into Chris McLean.**

**Cedric: Nice Author's Note McLocker**

**Go back to your own story Cedric! And I am not McNapkin! Oh great now he's got me doing it!**

**Next Chapter: Chōjuro's Vendetta **

**. . .**


	28. Chojūro's Vendetta

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then the Bloody Mist time period in Kirigakure would have been explained better.**

**Maya: Hey Skillet, are you going to do the finals gag again?**

**Skillet: Nah this semester wasn't as hard, and the joke is wearing thin anyways.**

**Maya:…But I really liked that gag.**

**Skillet: And I like shipping you and Phoenix together!**

**Maya: Have you been talking to Pearl? Is she reading my diary again?!**

**Cedric: Bitch please he shipped you and Phoenix long before I got to Reunion, and Turnabout.**

**Skillet: Go back. Own story. Now.**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 26: Chojūro's Vendetta**

* * *

"So you're little alliance managed to defeat Reaper and Heartless? That's a shame, I guess it's time I take matters into my own hands." Pein said before commanding the Shinju to attack with the point of his finger. Reacting to the order, the biju's large stone tail shot out at lightning speed towards the group.

Before contact could be made though, Roshi jumped up and blocked the attack with Son Goku. After landing back on the ground the veteran shinobi turned to the others and said "Fuu, I'll make this clear for you. Take Chouji and fly back to the village! He's in no shape to fight right now, and you can get there the quickest."

"But I want to fight too!" Fuu objected to this, only to see the serious look on Roshi's face and obey the order, flying off with the exhausted Chouji in tow. Pein saw this and was about to command the Shinju to stop them. But Preta Path felt their arm cut off before the order could be given.

**"Onigiri"**

Naruto had jumped onto the beast before the order could be given, and stopped Pein from attacking "You don't have a say in where their going Niiteme. But while I have you, I want to know about a certain member of your organization!"

"I presume you mean Genius? You won't be able to see him again, before your untimely demise. Human Path, now!" Preta Path yelled as Human Path jumped behind Naruto and grabbed the top of his head.

**"Soul Mixer"**

To the corpse's surprise, nothing happened when they attempted to pull out Naruto or Kuruma's soul. Naruto turned around and glared at the path before slashing at it with Kuruma "Can't get me with my hood up. My jacket doesn't have a soul dumbass!"

**"Black Needle"**

Before contact could be made a sharp black rod suddenly shot out from Human Path's hand and blocked Kuruma. Things only got stranger when the substance suddenly started Kuruma to start screaming in agony. Before Naruto had time to respond, Deva Path had snuck up behind him.

**"Shinra Tensei"**

"What the hell was that Kuruma?" Naruto asked his tenant upon being launched onto the ground.

**_"I'm not really sure, but that metal started sucking out my youkai. I don't think it's kairoseki or Busoshoku Haki either. But it seems a bit familiar."_**

"It should seem familiar Ichigo. This is another one of the rinnegans many powers, called Black Needle. It's very similar to kairoseki as you previously said, but there's a rather big difference. It affects chakra and youkai as opposed to Devil Fruit powers. And since your a being of pure youkai, I'm guessing you can tell how it would affect you." Pein explained to Kuruma with a smirk on his face.

"I don't know where Minato went wrong, but you've grown up to be one sick little shit Yahiko." Kuruma glared at the man he saw grow up, only to sense more incoming danger "Naruto look out!"

Naruto turned his head just in time to see one of the Shinju's many tails swinging towards him, and used all three of his swords to guard. He was able to briefly block before moving out of the way and letting the tail brush past him, before grimacing upon seeing even more come his way.

While he constantly had to avoid all ten tails of the Shinju swinging around and trying to crush him under its wrath Naruto angrily thought to himself _'How many more powers does our Kekkei Genkai have? At this rate I won't be able to directly touch him with Kuruma, and I don't think he's weak enough to beat with only two swords. What the hell am I going to do here? Alright calm down, attacks like this need to have a pattern. So if I figure it out, I should be able to get out of this mess!'_

After a few more minutes of barely being able to dodge or block the Jubi's powerful strikes, Naruto managed to pick up on the pattern the tails were striking him at. With a bit of timing Naruto ran up one of the nearby tails and aimed carefully at Naraka Path, knowing that it could simply heal any damage he did to the others.

**"Hyakuhachi Pound Ho"**

**"Shinra Tensei"**

Deva Path negated the attack and launched it back at Naruto. While the force turned the slash into a small gust of wind, it still had enough force to knock Naruto back several feet as he flew into the air. Piercing Yamakawa-o into the ground to keep from being further knocked back, Naruto laced his swords with Haki and made another charge on his older brother.

**"Summoning Jutsu: Snake Tailed Chameleon"**

**"Rengoku Onigiri"**

While Naruto ran towards the biju again, Animal Path summoned a rinnegan beast to stop him in his tracks, which worked about as well as you'd expect. When Naruto saw the giant lizard falling towards him, he leapt into the air and killed the summon, before using it's remains to get further into the air. He then set his sights on Naraka Path again only for the blow to be taken by Human Path.

**"King of Hell"**

After Human Path had been decapitated by Naruto, Naraka Path almost instantly summoned the King of Hell to make repairs, much to Naruto's annoyance "Damnit I'm back to square one." It was then Naruto noticed a tail swinging towards him once again "Not like it matters though, I could do this all day!"

Just before Naruto could block the attack again, Chojūro stepped in and blocked the tail with the Hirameikarei, before sweeping the tail away "Be careful, I don't want you to die just yet Cinderface!"

"You are one weird duck you know that!" Naruto said before noticing the tails were coming down at an even faster rate now that Chojūro had intervened. Things only came to a halt for a brief second when Asura Path came down to fight. Before either of them could react, the path opened it's machine like mouth and began shooting projectiles while spinning it's head 180°.

**"Black Needle Gattling"**

This move forced both swordsman on the defensive as the rapidly deflected the sharp black rods constantly being fired on them. Naruto was especially cared as he knew that with both chakra and youkai in his body, he would twice as susceptible to the weakening affects of the mysterious stone.

Meanwhile the remainder of the shinobi there watched with intrigue as the two swordsman were slowly overwhelmed by Pein's attacks "So this is the leader of the Akatsuki? I knew he would be strong but he's giving these guys a pretty hard time."

"He's the son of Minato-sensei, and he has 12 years of experience more than Naruto. With that King of Hell jutsu up, they can't really make much of a dent in his attacks. And Naruto can't have Niisan fight the Jubi in his own biju form without Pein hitting him with those Black Needles. So the odds are their in a lot of trouble…What hell is wrong with me?! I can't just stand here and let them fight on their own!"

Kakashi then ran to join the battle against the Akatsuki leader himself, using his Devil Fruit powers to avoid the large stone tendrils threatening to crush him as he got closer and closer into the circle. Asura Path found the Division 1 Lieutenant on him within the blink of an eye, and stood still as the current of red lightning charged through his undead body.

**"Lethal Voltage"**

Once a few seconds of waiting had gone by of nothing seeming to have happened Asura Path looked up towards Kakashi and smiled arrogantly "Nice try copycat ninja." Kakashi winced when he saw the top of its head open to reveal a cannon. He tried to jump away in time, but was still caught in the blast. Thankfully he came out unharmed thanks to his Devil Fruit power.

Of course, Pein hadn't forgotten about Chojūro and Naruto being there, opening fire on them as well with small missles in his arms. They were easily able to strike them down in midair, though after the threat had been taken care of Naruto took the time to gaze at Asura Path "I know the rinnegan isn't all that normal, but is this thing even human?"

"You should be worrying about yourself Otouto." The variation of Pein said while suddenly growing several different arms at once and charging at Naruto. While Naruto instantly went into stance with intent to force Pein back onto the defensive, Chojūro intervened before anything could be done.

**"Fishman Karate: 700 Fist Cyclone"**

"What the hell Fishman Karate?" Naruto cried out at the sudden turn of events before hearing another beast summoned by Yahiko's Animal Path coming from nearby.

**"Summoning Jutsu: Giant Drill Beaked Bird"**

When he saw the giant living drill coming down onto him Naruto leaped into the air to avoid it, barely missing the killing machine. But before he could make his descent back down Naruto suddenly felt himself pulled up and held in midair. He looked at the statue to see Deva Path glaring at him with her hand extended.

**"Banshō Ten'in"**

**"Chibaku Tensei"**

Naruto felt his heart begin to race as a black orb suddenly formed near his chest. He used his strength to fight against the pull and get his swords into a defensive position, only to realize something about his environment. Large rocks buried in the sand and nearby dead trees were being pulled from the ground.

"Naruto! Look out!" Kakashi cried to his ex student, before the debris that had been lifted from the rotted forest started flying towards the black orb and straight into Naruto. Though his swords absorbed many of the blows, the swordsman still showed visible pain from the barrage, which only increased when the Drill Beaked Bird came down from above and drilled the trapped swordsman into the sand below.

Despite being incredibly beaten by the attack, Naruto still had the strength to pull himself up. Unfortunately the first thing he saw upon sitting up what that the Shodai Kitetsu had been broken during the attack "Great cursed to the end." The swordsman chuckled at his misfortune only to cough up blood and clutch his several cracked ribs.

Seeing Naruto's injuries had gotten worse from the beating Kakashi ran up to him with several shuriken and kunai in hand "Naruto, eat some of these to regain some energy. We don't have much time before-"

"You shouldn't let your guard down Copy ninja." Just as Kakashi had predicted, Pein decided to take advantage of Naruto's weakened state by appearing behind the former as Human Path with intent of removing his soul. However he was knocked back by Naruto a few seconds after arriving.

**"Yakkodori"**

"Would you piss off Niiteme!" Naruto screamed while Naraka Path dragged off the damaged Human Path, only to end up coughing up more blood before taking the weapons "Guess I'm not entirely healed from those ROOT interrogations."

"That and I don't think we did enough research on this Pein guy. We thought we knew everything about your family's Kekkei Genkai, but he just keeps pulling stuff out of his ass. And we can't even take down one of the paths without him just fixing it." Ino pondered off to the sidelines.

"Which will only make him that much harder to kill." Naruto said with a glare, before noticing a battle ridden Chojūro walk up to him.

"Tell me Cinderface, what is this madman planning to accomplish. Not it takes much to be killed like someone like you." Chojūro continued to glower at Naruto, only to turn shyly at Kakashi "By the way, your Devil Fruit power is really cool Kakashi-senpai."

"Umm, well thanks." Kakashi said with a flattered blush, while Naruto took the time to explain.

"I learned what their intending on the first day I encountered the Akatsuki. It was from an agent right on the edge of becoming a chairman. He was really stupid, but he was pretty strong. From what the Squidhead told me they want to get that Jubi husk to its full power by capturing all 9 of us and removing our biju to make a super weapon. They'll use it to overthrow the World Government before giving it to 2 hostile nations and letting them destroy each other. Apparently that'll somehow lead to them taking over and bringing peace."

"That sounds absolutely crazy. But I guess it could eliminate any of what I had to face growing up." Chojūro said, letting go of his hatred for Naruto for a brief moment to react.

His words made Kakashi curious, so the jounin asked "Growing up? What did you have to deal with?"

"I had to deal with many of what my kind deal with. I'm half fishman, and I was a slave. Maybe now you can understand why I hate you so Cinderface." Chojūro said before preparing to tell his story.

"Wait a second!" Naruto suddenly interrupted before the hybrid could begin, and turned to Pein "Hey Niiteme, do you mind holding off on the attacks for a bit? This guy has to tell us his life story. Like in half the damn fights I've been involved in over the past 6 months!"

"…What?!"

* * *

About 10 years ago, a blue haired twelve year old swam through the rough seas of the South Blue. Since he was only half fishman, he was thought to be a human and couldn't join the Sun Pirates. To make matters worse, the World Nobles had issued a notice to catch escaped slaves, and that meant there would be hundreds of bounty hunters in this sea alone looking for the brand on his back.

Eventually he made it shore, though it appeared that the island was deserted. This frustrated the boy as this likely meant it didn't have the means for living anywhere either "I guess I'll just have to make the most of my situation here. I guess that the trees might have some fruit, and I could make a shelter out of sand." Chojūro landed while digging up some sand to begin construction on his shelter.

That is until he suddenly took a rock to the forehead which knocked him back. After rubbing the new bruise he looked up to see a group of children standing in front of him "Get away from our sand and off our island you smelly fish!"

"We saw your teeth your piece of crap!"

"You and those other bloodline freaks should go rot in hell!"

_'Great more of this. Are all full blood humans such assholes?' _Chojūro thought to himself while running away from the angry mob of children, who quickly chased after him. However a green haired man passing by tripped him with a slight smirk on his tan face. This allowed the children to catch the poor hybrid and begin beating him up mercilessly.

"Hey what's this weird mark on his stomach." Chojūro winced when one of the children said that causing the man who'd tripped him to stop dead in his tracks.

When the man turned around Chojūro got a good look at the man for the first time. The man had baggy dark blue eyes, thick black lips, tan skin, and messy green hair that went down to his waist. Aside from his standard Kiri hitai-te and pale blue flak jacket, he had two twin swords hitched to his sides, which he unsheathed causing lightning to suddenly start spraying from the thin metal.

"So you're an ex-slave eh? We'll just have to remove the ex from that sentence won't we. As a shinobi it's my duty in justice to return such a foolish renegade back to their master!" The mysterious man cried while the children nearby started to cheer. Before anything else could be done though, a cross shaped pocket knife blocked his blade.

"Stop this foolishness Raiga. This continent isn't part of the World Government so we have no obligation to bow to those filthy mongrels up in Marejois, and as such we don't need to commit such cruel acts as the slave trade." The man holding the pocketknife said to Raiga. Like the other, he had a blue flak jacket and a Kiri headband, but he also wore a simple pair of black sunglasses and had a large cross shaped sword on his back. His black hair was slicked back behind his hitai-te and he had a small pointed mustache.

"You should know that a fish like him doesn't have any rights. He's like you bloodline trash in that regard Mihawk." Raiga taunted his hateful comrade only to find another blade near his neck.

"We may be bloodline trash Raiga, but don't forget that us two are the strongest swordsman in the world. If you harm this child you'll bring on our wrath." A much younger Maglako, with a Kiri hitai-te and what appeared to be an entirely blue attire. His hair was blue, his flashy shades were blue, and his sparkled tuxedo was blue.

"Mizukage-sama will hear of this foolishness for the record." Raiga growled at the brothers before sheathing the Raikiba and stomping off.

Mihawk glared at him with equal hatred only to be hit with a pebble. He looked down to see that the npmob of snot nosed children were complaining and whining at him and Maglako for their interference.

"You big jerk, don't you know that fish deserves it for being born!"

"People like you should rot in hell!"

"Shithead!"

"Shithead!"

"Shithead!"

"Shithead!"

Getting very annoyed with the mob of brats whining at him, Mihawk took off his sunglasses to reveal his piercing bird-like eyes and unleashed a wave of killing intent towards the bratty children "I suggest you leave before I spank you so hard your eyes only see in photo negative." That threat was all it took for the children to run away, screaming in fear.

"So your half-fishman eh kid? Well you couldn't have picked a worse island in the world to drop anchor on." Maglako said while pulling the boy up from the dirt path.

Seeing as the boy was confused by this Mihawk explained while putting back down his sunglasses "Kirigakure may have the highest fishman or hybrid poplulation in the South Blue, but they've come up across some problems in recent times. Once the Sandaime started to reign, he began placing restrictions on fishmen and anyone with Kekkei Genkai; and that's not even considering what he's done to the Academy."

"And the Yondaime Yagura has only made this worse. He's made it legal to murder someone as long as they have fishmen DNA or Kekkei Genkai in their blood. Even if they're family. This Hellfire is burning in my skin. It's a tragedy!" Maglako began to sob, much to the annoyance of his younger brother.

"Stop being an idiot Maglako!" Mihawk yelled in anger only to turn back to Chojūro "And ever since The Frost Cleansings a few years back, very few shinobi with Kekkei Genkai are alive or out of hiding. Me and Maglako are the only exception to this."

"So that's why that thunder guy called you bloodline trash…What exactly is a Kekkei Genkai anyways."

"You're not from around here are you pardner?" Maglako said with a really bad western accent, before coughing from the strain it put on his vocal cords and speaking again his normal tone "We'll have to explain everything later. Right now we have to take him to Zabuza."

"Who's Zabuza?"

* * *

"Zabuza is the only hybrid left alive in the village. The only reason Yagura has kept him alive this long is because of his status as one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. The last hybrid, Mangetsu, was killed by Yagura himself a few weeks back. Odds are he's planning all of our deaths" Maglako explained as he walked down the dirt path.

"Sso if the Mizukage is so horrible to the people in this village why don't you just depose him. It's not like you guys don't have enough power or anything." Chojūro stuttered out curiously, which Mihawk answered almost instantly.

"Believe me, we've been planning a coup for years now with some of our village's best shinobi helping us. But we'll need more money if we want to pull it off, and we're still barely out of our goal range."

After his brother finished his explanation Maglako huffed and pouted all of the sudden "I still don't understand why we have to take him to that asshole Zabuza."

"Because it doesn't matter if he doesn't like your freak routine Niisan, he's the only other hybrid left in the village, so the child should stay with him for the time being." Mihawk said to his older brother only for another voice to come out from the trees.

"I don't think anyone likes your freak routine Maglako. I'm surprised that Mihawk has been able to put up with it for 33 years." Kisame further insulted the eccentric man while hopping down from the branches.

"You were a lot nicer a few years ago gaki."

"Well our families were a lot more alive a few years ago. Just do what you were doing and take the brat over to Zabuza." Kisame growled bitterly as he stomped away.

It took a few more minutes for the small group to make it to a small shack on the southern edge of Kirigakure. As to be expected by the home of an outcast, everything was very run down with dead flora and fauna scattered around it, and the fragile wood used to make the building was rotted and moss covered.

"Well here we are. The home of the Kirigakure Splinter Cell leader, Zabuza Momoichi. If all goes well he'll end be the new Mizukage." Mihawk explained to the hybrid.

"Wait you're the strongest swordsman in the world right Mihawk-senpai. So wouldn't that make you more qualified to be the Mizukage or whatever it's called?"

"Yes but besides Mei-chan, he's the only one of us the public would consider qualified that would actually be qualified. He covers up his mouth so no one knows he's part fishman. Unfortunately besides Yagura. I'm guessing you can tell by his house his terrible tastes in feng shui."

The moment after Maglako said the insult a large sword flew out from one of the windows. In response Maglako swung out his own sword and used it to block it, specifically hitting the hole in the center. With a smirk on his mustached face he twirled the sword around on his own blade before tossing it away.

"Damnit. I was hoping I'd finally gotten you this time Maglako. Guess I'll never really be able to get you to use Nuibari's true form. Haven't seen it since Kushimaru died. I'm still surprised you got used to it as quick as you did." Zabuza said as he came out from his shack and jumped from the shredded window.

"You shouldn't be surprised Zabuza. I am the Phantom of the Opera, and the Greatest Swordsman in the World." Maglako went into another one of his boasts, posing grandeurly.

"You mean ex-Greatest Swordsman in the World. I took that title 5 years ago." Mihawk droned at his older brother who immediately went into an anime depression on his knees.

It was by this point Zabuza noticed the shy newcomer hiding behind Mihawk's leg. Somewhat annoyed with the boy's meekness he walked up to them and asked "Who the hell is this gaki? I haven't seen him around Kiri at all."

"This boy is an ex-slave that was among those freed by Fisher Tiger not long ago. He's a hybrid just like you Zabuza. He's chosen a rather poor residence for his kind if you ask me." Mihawk informed his comrade in arms , referring to the prejudice experienced in the village.

Zabuza listened carefully, and proceeded to do something that surprised the remaining members of the Dracule clan. He picked the boy up and took him back to his house "Wait a sec, what are you doing with me?"

"What does it look like you dumb gaki. We're missing quite a few hands in the Seven Swordsman so I'm going to have you fill them in. We don't have much time before that bastard Yagura loses his head." Zabuza growled to the child as he was dragged off towards the shack.

"Don't I get a say in this!"

"Nope!"

Mihawk and Maglako were both utterly speechless at the awkward second "Aren't we going to do something about this."

"When you're drinking buddies with Shanks Uzumaki you're used to crazy shit like this. As long as it means we can put an end to the Bloody Mist faster and the kid's still alive, I'm fine with it." Mihawk adjusted his sunglasses and walked away, with Maglako following after a small pause.

* * *

"Let's get one thing straight gaki. From here on in you're listening to me. From now I on I will be your father, brother, mother, and uncle. You will be the weapon that tips the scale in our favor against that bastard Yagura. Do I make my self clear?" Zabuza growled in the face of the child, who was visibly frightened.

"Yes, yes sir." Chojūro managed to stutter out to the intimidating hybrid.

"Honestly Zabuza-kun you're scaring the child. You shouldn't expect him to be ready to undergo such hardship so early in his life." A sultry voice came from nearby. It came from a familiar redheaded woman who would later be known as the Godaime Mizukage "I think you should give the boy less bark."

"He's already gone through hardship just as us. We'll need some more men to put an end to this hardship." Zabuza said before pulling a scroll out from a nearby cabinet and handing it to Chojūro "This scroll contains the technique for the Silent Killing style of Kirigakure. After you understand it, try and use it on me with the Hirameikarei upstairs."

"Um ok then." Chojūro looked at the scroll carefully examining it before signing "How come I always get into these situations."

After a few hours of studying the technique, Chojūro let out another anxious sigh when he realized what head to do next. He headed upstairs to retrieve the sword called Hirameikarei. He was confused as to why the sword had bandages wrapped around it, but merely shrugged it off and began heading outside.

"You took quite a bit of time Butterfly. Zabuza-kun isn't going to be happy." Mei said to the child as he walked out the door, only for him to stop silently "Be careful out there, Zabuza doesn't have many soft spots. And for the record trying to harm a level 35 swordsman is a very bad idea."

"Level 35?" Chojūro asked, confused by the meaning of that statement.

"Swordsmanship is ranked on units of five with basic training being 5 and the highest level possible being 50. At the moment I'd say your 0 since you haven't actually gotten much training. The only living level 50 swordsman are Mihawk and Maglako." Mei explained causing the amateur to gulp before he walked into the night.

He slowly tip toed outside and saw Zabuza sitting silently on the edge of the shack's balcony, starting at the bright crescent moon hanging in the sky. Gathering whatever courage he had, the young hybrid dashed up, using the technique the scroll gave him to strike with the still bandaged Hirameikarei.

**"Silent Killing"**

The strike was easily blocked and deflected by Kubikiribōchō and Chojūro was easily knocked back several feet. The boy was fearful of how Zabuza would react to the attack, but he merely seemed disinterested "Gotta get up pretty damn early gaki."

"Huh? I thought this was training?"

"Nah, this was just an assessment of what you can actually do right now. We've got a long way to go before you can take on a major shinobi. You might be able to fight a gennin though." Zabuza said before groaning and turning back to the moon "Sorry for dragging you into this village's business kid, but this is the only country hybrids are semi-common in the entire South Blue. So unless you turn to piracy this place is the best choice we've got. That's why I want to make things right again."

"How'd you get so many strong people on your side? From the looks of things Yagura's brainwashed a lot of people into thinking we're the bad guys." Chojūro asked which seemed to make Zabuza even more frustrated.

"You never know how bad it is until it affects you directly. When it does. We're the ones they come too. Kisame's wife was kidnapped and sold with their unborn daughter. Mei was seeing a fishman before they were discovered and he was lynched. And the Dracule clan was wiped off the island by order of Yagura. And there are hundreds of other cases just like that in the rebellion. Even dumps like Konoha or Suna are better options than here, but I won't let what I had to go through or what we've all went through happen in this village anymore. The second Yagura tries something else, that pretty boy will lose his head."

After another sigh Zabuza stood up and walked away back into the house "We'll start the rest of your training tommorow."

While seeing his master walk away Chojūro chuckled a little to himself "Man everyone made him seem so scary earlier. But underneath he's just a big cream puff."

"I heard that gaki!"

* * *

Next evening Chojūro walked around the island village of Kirigakure, with intent of getting familiar with his new environments. He would officially start training under Zabuza that night and wanted to find something that would keep his energy up. Of course, he had to cover his teeth to prevent getting murdered in some alleyway.

But as the sun set on the snowy island, the explosion of rebellion revealed itself quicker than expected, when Chojūro heard the mumbling soft nearby villagers "Did you hear what's happened? Yuuma got killed earlier by some bloodline brat!"

"Rumor has it was his son Haku, and his wife was a member of the Yuukiyama so he killed her. It's a good thing she was wiped from our village."

"Yeah, but that stupid kid is still alive."

"I think we should change that."

Chojūro blanched when he heard this and began running in the opposite direction as the angry mob with intent of alerting Zabuza. But to his surprise, he was met with an army of fishman and humans charging down the path towards the burning house in the east, which appeared to have several spikes sticking from its roof.

While the army of pissed off rebels ran towards the burning house Chojūro desperately asked them "What are you guys doing? I have no clue what's going on!"

"In case you're wondering Mei wanted us to go save that Yuukiyama gaki that they're trying to lynch. We're also moving the assassination up to today, so half our army is going to the fire, and the other half is taking out Yagura. Grab your sword and pick a side!" Kisame said to the trainee before running further down the path.

Meanwhile a much younger Haku was face to face with an angry mob as they used their torches and pitchforks to break away at the ice keeping them from getting into the now frozen house. Like any child would, he cowed in the corner with death incoming _'Why oh why did I have to waste all my chakra.'_

**"Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage"**

The small boy winced again when he saw something burrow underground and head towards him. He started to scream when someone popped out of the wooden floor, with a large sword armed "Calm down brat I'm here to save you're ass but you're screaming is just going to get us killed!…Ah screw it."

Kisame simply knocked the hysterical boy out with a quick chop to the neck, before he saw lightning flashing out the corner of his eye. He turned around and growled when he saw its source "Oh great, you're here too."

"It makes sense that fishman filth like you would want to save more scum. But I'll give you both a funeral right here and now." Raiga sneered at his now former comrade as he charged up his signature attack.

**"Fangs of Lightning"**

Raiga pointed his swords up to the sky, crossing them and bringing large pillars of white lightning down onto his targets. Kisame merely smirked and pulled out Samehada to easily block the attack and swipe it away before countering with his own sword. The green haired man recoiled in pain as the deadly sword scraped off his skin, but still smiled at the fishman.

"Yo can't touch me Kisame, not without that sword! My lightning can easily destroy your water attacks and Fishman Karate!" Raiga taunted the fishman who clearly outclassed him by this time.

Kisame merely raised up his sword and slashed away more of Raiga's chest causing him to cough up blood "I think you should see how weak you really are. Especially compared to the bloodline and fishmen scum you revile."

"What the hell do you mean?!" Raiga yelled angrily only to be cut by two more blade from behind.

**"Kokuto Kogetsu"**

**"The Song of Nicholas Cage"**

Mihawk and Maglako both came from behind and used their swords to finish off Raiga. The force of both blows was too much for Raiga's body to handle, and he was almost instantly disintegrated by the attacks. When Mihawk turned around to see his fate, Raiga was little more a pile of bloody appendages and tattered clothes.

"So this is the power of the two greatest swordsman in the world. Are you sure never use your Takagan?" Kisame asked awhile noticing Mihawk had taken off his glasses to reveal his dojutsu. However he could tell that it wasn't turned on, since the veins around his eyes weren't tensed.

"Of course not, it would cheapen my swordsmanship. I only use my own strength for my swordsmanship, not that Takagan would really help it all that much." Mihawk explained before looking at the remains of his broken shades "Great, now I need to buy more."

"Don't worry Otouto, if all goes well we shouldn't have to wear these glasses to hide ourselves ever again. Of course, I'm still wearing mine, considering how sexy they make me look."

"Freak." Kisame said completely deadpan, while placing his sword back in its bandages.

* * *

At around the same time Zabuza had made his way through the Mizukage's defenses with the help of his own army, which included Mei and the Demon Brothers. He was currently sprinting down the hallway to Yagura's throne room, getting closer and closer to the large and fancy door marking it's entrance. However there were still obstacles on the way there.

**"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique"**

Several jounin and chunin level Kiri guards jumped out from behind the decorative pillars of the estate, and began to open fire, on the now missing-nin. However Zabuza was far too agile and avoided the pressurized streams of water with incredible ease. He unsheathed Kubikiribōchō and easily sliced down the large door.

"So you've rebelled, killed Raiga, avoided my guards, and broken down my fancy door, eh Zabuza? Don't you think you should just call it quits while you're ahead." A young and condescending voice came from the oriental fountain themed throne room. The young man had grayish blonde hair, and wore a green tunic paired with black armor and a blue sash. And besides him was a very dower looking girl with short brown hair and purple markings on her cheeks.

"Not on your life brat. I won't be your tool any longer!" Zabuza yelled defiantly while drawing his blade at the Mizukage.

Yagura merely laughed aloud at this threat, before pointing behind Zabuza "Tell that to them." The rebel swordsman used his peripheral vision to look behind him and see the guards from earlier had approached him from behind and prepared to fire on him again. But he simply swung Kubikiribōchō behind him and finish them all off at once.

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that!"

"As you wish. Isobu now!" Yagura ordered the somber looking girl next to him who timidly nodded before suddenly beginning to glow. She left up into the air and allowed Yagura to catch her, when the light dimmed and she was revealed to have turned into a large black club.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're doing but I'm stopping it right now!" Zabuza said while tossing up his sword and quickly doing a set of handsigns while it was airborne. Once the pattern was completed, water in the nearby fountains began to defy gravity and rise up forming two beasts from the cool liquid.

**"Water Release: Twin Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu"**

Zabuza sent the tandem attack towards the Mizukage, but Yagura just grinned and opened his mouth wide open as if anticipating the attacks landing. The dragons perfectly hit their mark, but did not have their desired affect as Yagura's mouth sucked up the water in under 3 seconds with his Jinchuriki elemental abilities.

With an even bigger grin on his face than before Yagura grinned before letting youkai spread throughout his chakra systems. The transformation was done in only a couple of seconds, leaving Zabuza no time to even attempt stopping it. When he was finished his hair had been turned brown, his eyes were more narrow and pointed, and skin was coated in a shiny blue ice armor, that made him resemble a kappa.

**"Frozen Kame Shell"**

"That explains why you can reflect your opponents attacks back at them. You're the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi aren't you?" Zabuza asked while guarding closer with his blade.

"That's right fish! Better not use any ninjutsu or fishman karate on me. Or I'll use my mirror shell to reflect them right back." Yagura said with a smirk as he drew his club.

"…You do realize I'm one of the of the Seven _Swordsman _of the Mist right?" Zabuza mockingly asked him before charging at his target with ferocity worthy of his title as a demon.

With Kubikiribōchō being swung and jabbed at him at speeds too fast for the naked eye to follow, Yagura could barely hold on to Isobu as Zabuza forced him back. It didn't take very long for Zabuza to completely knock the club out of the Mizukage's grip, and prepare to deliver the killing blow by cutting through what little remained of Yagura's armor around his chest. However the tables turned once again when his eyes suddenly changed.

**"Amaterasu"**

Right before Zabuza could finish him off, scorching black flames suddenly sprung up on Zabuza's back causing the normally emotionless assassin to start screaming in agony as the flames caused a multitude of burns. They finally went out when Yagura snapped his fingers, allowing Zabuza to get a better look at his eyes changes and wince. As his eyes had become sharingan.

Before he could call him out for his apparent hypocrisy or even react at all, Yagura breached out under the bandages covering Zabuza's lower face and froze his gills with his remaining ice youkai. Things only got worse when Yagura performed more hand signs and pushed Zabuza, suddenly trapping him in a ball of water, using the nearby fountains one again.

**"Water Prison Technique"**

With his gills blocked up, and his lungs incapable of breathing the water, Zabuza began to suffocate in the cold and wet prison. All the while he watched a possessed looking Yagura smile at him, shedding the last of his shell "All hail The Santatsu Foundation."

**"Silent Killing"**

Since the possessed Yagura was focused on keeping Zabuza trapped until he drowned, he was completely unaware of Chojūro sneaking in with Hirameikarei armed. While the attack only caused a small scratch on his left arm, it was enough to distract Yagura long enough for Zabuza to break free of the water prison.

"I don't know whether I should thank you or smack you." Zabuza said to his apprentice while coughing up the water he had swallowed, and scraping the ice from his gills.

"Don't waste your energy, there's someone else coming. Someone just as powerful as this guy!" Chojūro explained while a different set of footsteps sounded off as they came into the throne room.

"I presssssssssume you mean me?" These footsteps belonged to the snake sannin, co-founder of the Santatsu Foundation, and notorious traitor to Konohagakure, Orochimaru. Currently he wore the uniform of an Akatsuki chairman, complete with the red cloud covered robe, though he was currently on business for the former organization "It'sssss been a while Zabuza. I haven't ssssseen you sssssssince the Battle of Kikyō Passssss."

"Great, you're hear. And I'm guessing you've got something to do with that Santatsu Foundation that genocidal gaki was rambling about, right Orochimaru." Zabuza asked pointing to Yagura who was awkwardly standing there, very confused as to what was going on at the moment.

"Actually I'm codenamed Diamondback now. Jussssst in casssse you were wondering."

Examaning his options, Zabuza sighed in frustration before grabbing a surprised Chojūro _'As much as I hate to retreat I don't thin I have much of a choice. A Kage is tough as it is, but I wouldn't last five seconds against a Kage and sannin.'_ Zabuza then shushined away in a small cloud of mist with Chojūro in tow, leaving the two behind.

"You didn't have to show up like that Orochimaru. I could have finished him off own my own." Yagura said, though his sudden change in voice revealed it was not Yagura, but Tobi.

"Don't be arrogant. You may be sssssstrong, but you're sssssstill only a Nitatssssssu." Orochimaru told his current subordinate.

"You don't exactly have to be strong to be Santatsu. Since the Nidaime Mizukage died against Maglako, his replacement is that little troll Gato."

"I have to agree with your there. In the meantime I need to prepare for the next plan to get land for the tower, since the old one involving the Kyuubi failed. We just need you to act as Mizukage for as long as it will take for the Revolutionary Army to get involved." Orochimaru explained before vanishing, leaving the fake Mizukage alone to celebrate victory in his throne room.

* * *

"We were forced to retreat and disband our rebel army that day. The only survivors to this day are me, Mei, Maglako, Mihawk, and Kisame. The rest were either hunted down by the World Government or killed in separate incidents." Chojūro neared the end of his tale "My master took the boy they saved and left my training to be finished by Maglako-senpai, while Mihawk turned to the Grand Line, and was named a Shichibukai a few months later. The last I heard of Zabuza-senpai was that he and the boy were killed during a mission involving The Copycat ninja and a blond bounty hunter who would later become known as Cinderface."

Silence covered the battlefield with the exception of the Shinju's nearby struggling and the wind blowing away the sand in the dessert. That is until Ino walked up started shaking Chojūro by his his collar "How stupid are you? The closest thing to swordsmanship Naruto could do back then was wield a kunai, and you think he killed someone who nearly beat a Kage?"

"Actually he's sort of right. In a way I'm indirectly responsible for his death, since me and Kakashi caused him to be worthless in that greedy midgets eyes. But he's still an idiot for thinking I killed him directly." Naruto said nonchalantly before drinking more of his sake.

"I never said I thought you killed him directly. But I know you had something to do with his death!"

It was by this point Kakashi spoke up, having recovered from the brief shock of hearing the sudden involvement of his former captors "If you're going to direct your hate to someone direct it towards me! I cost Zabuza the use of his arms and I'm directly responsible for his death."

Chojūro's facial expression changed from that of distrust to that of shock, as he turned to face Kakashi only for his and the other's attentions to focus in on the trapped Pein and Shinju, due to the latter's shriek of rage. The one responsible for this was Shikamaru, who had reappeared and was holding the Jubi down with it's own shadow.

"If you kids are done with story time over there, I could really use some help. You've got 2 minutes before this thing breaks free and tries to eat your biju Naruto. So finish your Niiteme off already!" Shikamaru screamed in pain as the pressure slowly became too much.

Naruto merely grinned and nodded, before turning to his old sensei and speaking "I'd need to find a way around his black gunk, but I don't have the time to pull it off. I'll need you to keep it off me while I take him down."

_**"How exactly do you plan to do that?"**_

"Simple, everyone of his bodies has those piercings from the rods except the real Pein. I think that might have something to do with how he links up with them!" Naruto said while arming his two remaining swords, before eating a couple shuriken he had on hand "Those must be the weak point!"

**"Giant Drill Beaked Bird"**

**"Sai Kuru"**

Now expecting the attack, and fully reenergized Naruto leapt into the air and cut into the giant bird summon, before jumping into it's corpse to gain some more hang time. However he was soon met with the tail of the Shinju again, barely being able to avoid it and land on the beast's main body.

**"Black Needle Gattling"**

Unfortunately Asura Path had followed him up and Naruto had to deflect another round of the sharp black bullets, only for Asura Path to be dealt another fatal attack in midair.

**"Lightning Cutter"**

**"Mutilation"**

Naruto grinned upon seeing Kakashi impale the clone, but it turned to a look of surprise when he saw Chojūro join in on the attack and land next to him "Don't just stand there like an imbecile take care of him."

"Animal Path, retrieve the remains of Asura Path and summon something else to knock him off." Pein ordered one of his sevenths to get the bloody corpse falling back to the ground. This heavily backfired when Naruto intervened.

**"Nitoryu: Blitzkreig Claw"**

With careful precision and aim he stabbed out the receivers, with the side affect of completely destroying. As a result of this, the now headless path fell over onto the leathery skin, with blood pouring from its neck stump. Observing this, Deva Path merely droned "Now that wasn't very nice. Now we have to find a new body to replace that one."

"Worry about yourself Pein!" Chojūro said he came from behind and charged the Six Paths of Pein, while Naruto followed suit intending to slice up Deva Path up. That is until he got a good look at the woman being used for the path. He then recognized her from pictures both Sarutobi and Jiraiya. And stopped dead in his tracks.

**"Shinra Tensei"**

Pein took advantage of the moment of weakness from his younger brother, and had Deva Path knock both of them back, using the pushing force to pin Naruto to the ground with all his strength once the swordsman landed "If anyone tries to attack me, I'll use the last of my strength to crush him like a walnut."

"What the hell was that? We almost had him." Chojūro asked he rose up, his uncharacteristic anger with Naruto flaring up once again.

Naruto didn't seem to notice and focused all his hatred onto Pein "You bastard…You're defiling our mother's corpse in your quest for power. How did we come from the same blood!"

"She's dead anyways, so it doesn't really matter what her opinion is now does it. Revenge is what I seek, not mere power. If I can get my revenge on that man, I'll reverse the entire world's way of life if I have to. It's quite a shame it had to end this way Otouto. You could have beaten me if you only knew of my Black Needle. Or maybe you were just a bit too weak." Pein said to his younger brother has broke free of Shikamaru's hold, knocking the chunin unconscious and pointing the charged Shinju at Naruto.

The young swordsman gritted his teeth in frustration, which only happened even more when Kakashi stepped in the way, intending to take the blast for both Naruto and Kurama **_"Otouto, what are you doing?!"_ **Ichigo screamed from beyond his katana form, talking to Kakashi for the first time almost two decades.

"I won't let you down again. And besides the new generation will always end up surpassing the old." Kakashi turned to his former student with a smile right before the blast. However when the light died down and Naruto managed to pull himself from the force, he saw Kakashi frozen, and in front of him was Roshi, wielding what used to be the demon hammer Son Goku.

"Your right Kakashi, so it's time this old fart sleeps in a fluffy cloud bed prepared in Heaven. Tell Han and Onoki-sama I'm sorry, and Jiraiya to put a copy of Icha Icha Journey on my grave." Roshi managed to choke out, before collapsing and dimming out.

"ROSHI-SENPAI!"

"I have to say, I didn't see that coming. But that old fool just saved your life Otouto. I'm afraid I'll be on my way now. And just a quick warning, the next time we meet will be the last." Pein said while going into a portal which drew him and the Shinju away, courtesy of Tobi.

"I still can't believe that guy is your older brother Naruto." Ino said as she walked up to the disgruntled and beaten swordsman, very shaken by what she'd just seen.

"That sack of shit is NOT my older brother. I only have one and he doesn't dress like that." Naruto said as he tried to get up from the small crater Yahiko had put him in "I swear that I won't lose to him again!"

"It's not like it was that bad a loss. We did manage to get him to lose a huge chunk of his chakra." Chojūro said as he dragged Kakuzu, Animal Path, and Roshi's corpses, and the unconscious bodies of Shikamaru and numerous Akatsuki agents over to the area.

"Besides I think that Sandaime-sama might have a way we can train and figure out a way to get around Pein's Black Needle. After we get you fixed up with some bandages and a new sword of course." Ichigo said to his partner as he transformed and grinned "We can use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Deidera the Artist**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Kisame Hoshigaki **

**Itachi Uchiha**

**Zetsu Frankenstein **

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): Anime references? Long update periods? Mistakes I missed in editing? Why it must be a new chapter of Ninja of Santoryu! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but I did give a fair warning. That and I'm not really good with flashback chapters. Certainly helps there are two upcoming chapters that are entirely flashback. I just hope I can get the next one out in faster time, since the Hyperbolic Time Chamber is involved. Albeit it'll function a bit differently but I digress. I've got a lot of plot to cover next time, and little computer battery to do it with. So I better finish this quick. I hope this chapter was worth the wait, since it _is _written kinda weird, and I'll see you next time.**

**Seriously though the timeline for the Bloody Mist makes my head hurt!**

**. . .**


	29. Blooming Aftershocks

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, or Dragon Ball GT.**

**L: Let's be honest, would anyone in their right mind want to own Dragon Ball GT?**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 27: Blooming Aftershocks**

* * *

After Yahiko came back to Amegakure with Son Goku in tow, he decided to have his subordinates make more journeys into the Land of Fire to lure out and capture the remaining Jinchuriki hiding out there. The only catch was that the teams now had to partner up with another to go out.

"Sasori my man, this royally blows. I can't believe we're stuck with these two morons if we want to hunt Jinchuriki." Deidera grumbled as he and the others maneuvered through the trees of the forest.

Itachi himself sighed and told Deidera "Don't talk about us like we're not here Artist. And for the record we're luring the Jinchuriki out, not hunting them down like before."

"It's still a stupid plan Genocide. The World Government is more likely to be hunting us down than they are considering how we've taken out a third of them by now."

"Don't insult Pein-sama like that Artist, we just got rid of Reaper, we don't need another disobedient shithead. He's the reason our organization even exists. He gave us all new lives after we rebelled from our villages, and he has great taste in literature." Itachi scolded the younger chairman only for Kisame to speak up.

"And by literature you mean that nonsense that white haired old fart writes." Kisame teased his younger to partner "But you just read them so you can imagine Angel-sama as the heroines don't you?"

"Shut the hell up Kisame." Itachi growled at the fishman walking besides him only to suddenly stop in his tracks. He listened carefully to the woods around before tossing a kunai into the trees, only for it to suddenly fly right back "Everyone on your guard, we're being followed."

"There are Jinchuriki nearby."

"No Scorpion, something else. The Santatsu Foundation." Itachi said with noticeable anger in his normally stoic voice, while various shinobi, missing-nin, and common thugs came out from the trees and surrounded them.

And up front, was one of their leaders, as well as the leader of Otogakure; Orochimaru the Snake Sennin "Honestly Itachi-kun, did you have to skip right to the point there. You're even worse than Skillet-kun when it comes to big twists." The traitor suddenly stopped talking upon seeing Sasori's wooden tail pointed up to his throat.

"I thought I said to never show your ugly face to me again Orochimaru. You know full well what I'm capable of with my puppetry." Sasori threatened his ex-partner, who stood there disinterested.

While this was going, a confused Deidera had a few questions "I'm confused here. Exactly who are these Triple Dragon Dicks again?"

"The Santatsu Foundation is the antipode to our organization, seeking the power of God for vain and selfish reasons. In Orochimaru's case immortality." Itachi explained only to hear another voice come from behind Orochimaru. A voice which made Itachi's uncharacteristic anger flare up even more.

**"Reflection Dome Jutsu"**

This voice belonged to Raido Namiashi, the Lieutenant of Division 6, bodyguard to the Sandaime, and secret Nitatsu "How rude Itachi, you left out multiple important details concerning our organization. But I guess losing your beloved younger brother to the Cinderface would make a person forgetful."

"You don't know a damn thing about what you're talking about teme!" Itachi suddenly screamed in rage, only for Kisame to block him and intervene.

"Calm down you baka, you're only playing into this freak's game."

"I'm surprised you're acting so calm Kisame. I think you'd be sympathetic with Itachi, since you know the pain of losing of family." Raido mocked the fishman, which visibly worked "Your fiancé was stolen by slave traders, your rebellion fell to shambles, and your older brother is locked up for good."

"Ok, that's it, let's remove their asses from the rest of their bodies." Kisame said angrily as he pulled Samehada out and he charged the group alongside Itachi and Sasori. But strangely they suddenly ended up in the exact opposite direction they were going in at first "Did, did we just go backwards?"

"Something like that. You ran through some sort of portal which somehow turned you the other way. Take a look." Sasori pointed out, as unlike the others he had simply shot his tail forward. And as a result of the warping in space the end of the tail was sticking back out. It was then they noticed something even stranger. The enemy had suddenly vanished.

When he saw this Itachi winced when he realized what was about to happen "Everyone get down now! This is a trap!"

**"Chandelier Hell"**

Suddenly rays of light began bouncing around them in an enclosed space, and revealed themselves to be very sharp by the cuts they made on Sasori's puppet armor. This also showed that the Akatsuki were currently enclosed in a dome of one way mirrors "Raido's specialty involves mirror techniques. He makes a dome of mirrors with a jutsu and kills you inside."

"That doesn't exactly explain the light show Genocide." Deidera complained to his comrade, only to get another quick and stern explanation.

"That's because only the dome itself is made from a jutsu. He controls their function with a Devil Fruit power!"

"Correct you are Itachi-kun. We knew that we wouldn't be able to just sneak past you or win in a fight. So we decided to create a diversion long enough for us to slip away. I've got important business on Wooden Stone and I can't let you interfere." Orochimaru mocked his former team members from a distance, while Itachi rammed his fists into a nearby tree.

"Santatsu, me and Pein-sama will make you regret this!"

* * *

*YAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWNNNNN*

Naruto let out a large cry of slumber, signifying the end of one of his several daily catnaps. He'd been able to finish even more than usual in the past two days, as he'd been laid up in a hospital bed with multiple broken bones from his fight with Pein "If there's one thing my Niisan taught me, it's how to power nap."

"Certainly gives me more time to heal you with all the rest you've had. Normally I'd just leave a few minor cracks and tell you to stay off the limb for awhile, but we both know you'll just ignore me." Kurama said as he ran his his youkai infused hand over the broken spots in Naruto's leg.

"As long as I can get out of here soon. This place brings up a lot of really bad memories." Naruto told his tenant "And besides Niiteme and Tucker are still running free. I don't think I could rest knowing they're still out there."

"Easy for you to say Naruto. You've only got to be in here for about another half hour. I'm stuck in this musty old room with terrible food for 2 more weeks!" Chouji complained from his own hospital bed not far from Naruto's "Think you could fix me up too Kurama?"

"Sorry but it only really works for Naruto since I'm sealed to him. If I tried it on anyone else it'd probably kill them." Kurama explained to the overweight gennin, before Naruto suddenly started to clutch his chest in pain. The biju reacted accordingly "Naruto, what's wrong?"

"M-mercury."

While Naruto writhed in agony on his hospital bed, a smug looking doctor came out from behind the corner "How do you like a plate full of mercury demon! Uchiha-sama will be avenged by me-AAAAAAAH." The doctor squealed upon having a kunai thrown next to his head by Naruto.

"Are you that idiotic? Or did you just forget that I can eat metal to begin with?" Naruto said before removing his IV and growling at his attempted poisoner, releasing a metric ton of killing intent "Now get me my clothes so I can go home."

Upon sensing the killing intent, the man pissed himself and quickly obeyed the swordsman "So I'm literally standing right next to you, and yet they still call you a demon. Have the people in this village been on stupid meds since I died?"

"That's a very likely possibility." Chouji joked along with the demon and turned his attention to the room's entrance to see Shikamaru was walking in "Hey there Shikamaru, what's up with you?"

"A lot of stuff actually; I need to ask you a favor Chouji. Me and Temari are getting married not long from now and I want you to be my best man." Shikamaru said awkwardly said, resulting in shocked silence from the others.

Naruto was the first to recover and break the silence "You're getting married Shikamaru? I thought you'd find it troublesome. Especially proposing."

"Well I did have a lot of help from Otou-san. And the marriage itself I'm fine with; but everything in between is a big drag." Shikamaru gave his opinion on the matter "Speaking of which Naruto, I'm surprised you and Hinata haven't tied the knot by this point. You're crazy about each other and you're both of marrying age."

The swordsman broke out into blushing and looked away "Well Hiashi-san and Neji have talked to me some about it. Anyways I've got to go before someone else tries to kill me." Naruto changed the subject before he and Kurama left the hospital room.

Once they were out and into the hallway Kurama began to grill his jailer for details "You won't be able to avoid answering yourself by avoiding conversation. It's obvious you're crazy for the girl and she's crazy for you. With the Government not chasing you anymore, you can actually afford to settle down."

"In case you haven't noticed Kurama, I'm the village pariah with a shitty apartment and only basic savings from shinobi work. I want to able to make her happy, and as I am right now I can't do that. Especially not with the Akatsuki riding my ass."

"I don't think it really matters Naruto. Hinata will always be happy with you, but I guess you have somewhat of a point with the Akatsuki being an obstacle in things. If it really matters all that much you should hit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and get a new sword as quickly as possible." Kurama explained his reasoning to Naruto.

"Actually I think there's something that both of us have to take care of."

* * *

Somewhere else in the village, a masked man was sitting down re-reading a green colored book, apparently worn out from both boredom and despair. Despair from the past and the present. Not even reading his favorite book could seem to cheer the man up from his seemingly endless depression.

"I can't wait till Icha Icha Journey comes out. It's quite the shame that Roshi-senpai will end up missing it in death." Kakashi mewled to himself before drifting into dream like memories.

_The teenage Kakashi had just gotten finished with a mission involving his new Division 13, now acting as its captain with Danzō being fired by the Yondaime recently. Right now he just wanted to rest on his bed and read. This new book series had come out called, Icha Icha which seemed interesting enough. __But with Ichigo as his older brother he knew that relaxation was out of the question._

_"YAHOO!" Yahiko cried as he fell down from the building above, crash landing directly onto him "Alright that was awesome! Nothing can stop the power of an Uzumaki!"_

_"Technically you and Nagato-san aren't Uzumaki. You're only half, and the one who got most of the blood was him anyways." Konan said as she flew down on her paper wings._

_"Stop trying to sound smarter than me Konan!"_

_"It's not that hard you know. Don't just crash off buildings like an idiot, you little dumbass! Someone could get hurt!" Ichigo scolded his student and smacked him over the head with the flat part of his scythe, before pulling up Kakashi "Sorry about that. There's a new baby coming soon in Minato's family, so Nagato and Yahiko are probably pretty antsy."_

_"It's fine Niisan. As long as they didn't get my book dirty. This seems like a pretty big winner." _

_"Not again Kakashi. Remember what I told you about what would happen if you sit around doing one thing forever." Ichigo said before holding up a picture "You'll start growing mushrooms on your head, and that's not cool."_

_"This coming from the person with a giant fox in his stomach." Kakashi reacted in a deadpan tone to his brothers antics before turning his attention over to the members of his team._

_One of whom was watching them with an excited look "I hope us and our younger brother will have a relationship like Ichigo-sensei and Kakashi-san."_

_"You can have him Niisan. I have a great Otouto already!"_

_"But aren't you the younger of you two Yahiko." Konan asked to the the annoyance of her teammate._

_"By 6 minutes, big deal!"_

The one eyed jounin was snapped out of his reminiscing when the door to his apartment came flying off its hinges and right into the chair he was dozing off in. Thankfully for him, his Logia power prevented any real damage "Oh shit, that must have hurt! Sorry about the door."

"It's no problem really, I can just…" Kakashi immediately paused when he saw who had blown his door down "Oh…it's you…I have the key to Division 1's Hyperbolic Time Chamber if that's what you came for."

"Cut the crap Kakashi-senpai. We both know that the Time Chamber isn't what I came here to talk about." Naruto bluntly stated to his former sensei.

Not being able to face the mental agony any longer, Kakashi dropped to his knees and began to apologize " Roronoa Naruto, I can't apologize enough for how I treated you six years ago. Because of my actions, you became wanted by the World Government and were nearly killed by Sasuke and Danzō. Please don't forgive me for what I've done."

"Is that all you were going to say? I already forgave you for what happened after you took down Fū. The reason I came here was to patch things up." Naruto explained to the Division 1 lieutenant, while pulling something out the pocket of his jacket. A blue book titled _'Icha Icha Journey' _"I figured this would be a pretty good peace offering, considering it hasn't even come out in book stores yet. You wouldn't believe how much Jiraiya charged me for it."

Kakashi grasped the book upon it being handed to him with awe before managing to stutter out to the swordsman "_I…I…_I…I'm not worthy!"

"Don't start crying just yet senpai. I'm not even finished yet. There's someone else I want you to meet." Naruto said to his still kneeling ex-teacher, before unsheathing Kurama in its sword form. Similar to how he and Zoro had done previously, Naruto tossed his demon katana up in the air with his arm stretched out.

In order to avoid cutting off his Jinchuriki's arm, Kurama transformed into his human form, landing on the ground while both he and Kakashi stared each other down in shock at seeing the other again.

_'Kakashi?'_

_'Niisan?'_

While the white haired biju stood up in a shocked and wobbly fashion, Kakashi felt his good eye begin to water up with tears. Before Ichigo had anymore time to react, Kakashi charged his older brother in an embrace "Ichigo-niisan! I thought you were dead all this time! I thought I would never see you again."

Now it was Kurama's turn to start crying "I guess I did die then. And so did everyone else. Nagato, Kushina, Biwako, and Minato. 18 years later and I still can't believe they're all gone."

Kakashi felt his stomach descend upon the mention of his former teacher, but before the reunion could continue any longer a gunshot rang out, as well as the sound of Kakashi's window shattering from the bullet crashing through it. Before anyone could realize what was going on, they saw that the bullet had embedded itself in Kurama's head.

Thankfully his forehead had already turned into a layer of red steel which was used to block the sudden attack "It's a damn good thing I saw that coming, otherwise I'd be kissing pavement right now."

"What the hell was that?"

"Take a look outside." Kakashi pointed angrily at the gunman who had almost killed his older brother once again, who was currently cloaked and standing on a nearby rooftop, with an aimed pistol and a rage filled scowl "Someone has it out for us."

"Not really. The more likely situation is that someone has it out for me. And I'm pretty sure I know who it is." Naruto growled before using the Yamakawa-o to deflect another bullet aimed his way and charging out the shattered window towards his assailant. Despite the gunman desperately firing on their target, Naruto easily deflected the bullets and removed the cloak with a single swipe.

**"Ittoryu: Hell Barber"**

Once the cloak disguising their identity was revealed, Naruto turned with a leer to face his attempted assassin "I could say I thought even you weren't stupid enough to try something like this. But we both know you are, Sakura."

"Shut up you stupid baka! This is all you're fault! You're the reason Sasuke-kun is in prison! You better tell Hokage-sama to release him, or I'll kill you right now!" Sakura screeched at her ex-teammate.

"The teme did that to himself, I had nothing to do with him trying to kill the Kazekage, and actually killing Ibiki. Not to mention sexually harrasing Hinata-chan!" Naruto growled, his voice still brimming with hatred towards the Uchiha "And besides, even if I wanted to let him go, Impel Down is a _government run _prison. So Jiisama couldn't do anything, since technically this continent isn't even part of the World Government."

"Then use your title as a Shichibukai to set him free. It's all your fault he's stuck there so you should take responsibility and let him go! Everything has been all your fault Baka! If you'd just accepted your fate to be a loser for all eternity and hadn't left the village 6 years ago, then we'd still be a team, he'd be a chunin instead of you, I'd have his babies, and your stupid whore would be dead at my feet!"

Now Sakura's ravings had gone too far for Naruto to handle any longer "Why you stupid bitch!" Before Sakura could pull the trigger on the pistol again, Naruto sliced the gun in half from the bottom up. Now unarmed, Sakura tried to go back to her normal method of nailing Naruto atop his blonde head.

This immediately failed when Naruto caught the punch and retaliated with a slap. Sakura was forced back not only by the attack but the first realization that Naruto had been fighting back in the past months _'How could he just hit me like that? I'm his Sakura-chan! He loves me!'_

The scuffle was broken by the sudden appearance of Kakashi and Ichigo "Give this foolishness up Sakura; you're completely out- numbered!"

"Not exactly." Another familiar voice said through a portal very similar to the Kamui, while another cloaked man came out of nowhere behind Sakura, before grabbing her and making an escape "Uchiha-sama will be avenged demon!"

"Ok now I'm really confused. Who the hell was that guy?" Naruto asked both himself and those around him of who this mysterious cloaked figure was.

"I'm not exactly sure but I'm about 99% sure they have something to do with the Santatsu Foundation." Kakashi theorized much to the shock of Naruto who instantly recognized the name given to him by Itachi.

_"There's actually more to the story than what the history books say. All I can say on the matter is beware of the Santatsu."_

"Did you just say the Santatsu Foundation? Itachi mentioned something like that after I finished off Sasuke-teme! What do they have to with Sakura?"

"I'm not exactly sure what they are myself, but I do know they were the ones holding me captive all that time. They seem to be an organization involving a merger between ROOT and Otogakure. Their leaders are Danzō, Orochimaru, and that masked Akatsuki codenamed Faceless."

"Wait a minute! All three of those guys are the leaders?!" Ichigo said in shock, having just had an an epiphany on the situation "All three of them kidnapped me on the day I died!"

"Then…that means they must have had something to do with the Kyuubi attack 18 years ago. If we can reveal it to Jiisama, then that will finally take Danzō and his flying monkeys down." Naruto realized before turning to his tenant and asking "Kurama, can you tell us anything about the place they took you to?"

"It's been a damn long time so the details are pretty rusty. The only thing I really remember about the place is that there was a yellow Hyuuga clan symbol there."

Upon the mention of the Hyuuga clan symbol, Naruto scowled as he remembered Neji telling him of a Hyuuga's involvement with Danzō and Tobi at one point "Noburu-teme."

* * *

_'So how long is she going to do this?' _The cloaked man thought to himself while Sakura rampaged around her living room, crying in frustration.

"Stupid Naruto-Baka! If it weren't for him, me and my Sasuke-kun would be together forever! It's all his fault!" Sakura continued her tantrum untill she fell over on the floor from exhaustion.

With her rant over, at least for a brief period time, the cloak approached Sakura while unmasking themselves "There, there young lady. The separation between soulmates is a horrible thing to bear alone. Especially at the hands of such a monster."

"Wait a minute, Danzō-sama? How did you get me back to my apartment?" Sakura asked upon seeing the councilor's bandaged face from under his cloak.

"I was an accomplished ninja warrior before my retirement. Even to this day it surprises me how the Nidaime picked that fool Sarutobi to be Hokage over me. Which is I why I'm taking it upon myself to undo the damage he's caused." Danzō explained to his pawn while pulling out a box from the cloak "Of course that includes the freedom of Uchiha-sama and the imprisonment of the actual guilty party, Naruto Uzumaki. But I'll need more help for that to become a reality."

Sakura opened the box held out in front of her and gasped upon seeing it's content inside. What was clearly a Devil Fruit, which was in the shape of a cherry with the swirls typical of a Devil Fruit, and rainbow-like colors plastered around it. Even someone as empty headed as Sakura knew what Danzō's intentions for the fruit were.

"Y-you want me to eat this Devil Fruit?! But I heard that you can never swim again if you eat one of these!" Sakura objected to the idea.

Danzō merely smirked and started manipulating the girl again "That's a small price to pay for seeing your true love again isn't it? With him around you won't ever even need to swim again!"

The pink haired gennin only had to think a few more seconds after Danzō suggested that, and grabbed the fruit "My Sasuke-kin will protect me from everything, once Naruto dies!" She then bit into the fruit sealing her fate.

…

"It tastes like shit."

* * *

After realizing the connection between Noburu's dirty dealings and the Santatsu Foundation, Naruto immediately headed towards the Hyuuga clan compound to investigate, with Kurama back in his regular katana form.

**_"Are you sure we'll even find anything there? I mean it's been almost 2 decades since I was there, so there might not even be any evidence left."_**

"We at least have to try. If there's something there then we can take out Danzō for good." Naruto huffed while sprinting towards the Hyuuga clan compound at what was practically mach speed. Only to get interrupted by a speeding green bullet knocking him down.

"Dynamic entry!" Lee cried as he accidentally crashed right into Naruto "My eternal rival, what are you doing running so quickly? Are you trying to make your flames of youth burn even brighter?"

"It's a good thing you never use your Devil Fruit power Lee, otherwise you might have killed me just now."

"Lee you bakame! Naruto-sama is right, if you were going top speed you could have caused him some serious harm." Neji scolded his teammate while pulling Naruto up "Are you injured Naruto-sama? Do you require any assistance?"

"Not really if you're talking about physical stuff, but I do need a few things from you guys in general." Naruto explained to the members of Team Gai.

"And what would that be Naruto-san?"

"Well for starters I'm going to need a new sword sooner than later Tenten-chan. Because the Shodai Kitetsu got broken by Pein a few days ago." Naruto pulled the remains of the swords, much to the shock and horror of the weapon loving kunoichi "And there's something I need to investigate at the Hyuuga compound involving the Kyuubi attack. Are there any rooms with a yellow clan symbol?"

"I think I know which building you're speaking of in the compound. But there's a rather large issue with this."

…

"No way, this place is completely totaled!" Naruto groaned upon seeing the eroded rubble that was once their lead.

**_"I have to be honest I kinda saw this coming."_**

"One of the first places the Kyuubi appeared in the beginning of it's rampage was at the Hyuuga compound. So that logically leads to the room it was formed in being reduced to a pile of woodwork and asphalt." Neji said to the swordsman while stroking his chin in thought.

"Well there's only one thing I can do about that." Naruto said darkly before unsheathing his two remaining swords "Start digging."

"Don't do that with your swords you moron! With your freakish strength you'll just end up wrecking any evidence left even more!" Tenten admonished the swordsman only to turn around upon hearing someone else coming from behind.

"Naruto-kun? What are you doing?" Hinata asked while staring at her boyfriend who was about to start excavating the remains of the small building.

"Hey Hinata-chan. We were just digging up some old dirt from that bastard Noburu. We think he was involved in some illegal dealings with Danzō and Orochimaru."

Hinata nodded in understanding of the situation, only for Neji to switch into a much more awkward conversation "That's not important right now. If the building is rubble then it likely means any evidence is in the same state. So we should switch our focus to more pressing Hyuuga matters. Hinata-sama, Naruto-sama; the two of you must get married before this year's end!"

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!"

"Hiashi-sama has talked of retirement soon, which is problematic since the only heirs are Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama, me, and indirectly Tokuhei-senpai. However Hanabi, isn't of marrying age, so that leaves you and Hinata. We have to set a date for marriage!"

"Wait a minute, you just said you and Tokuhei-senpai count as heirs too. So why don't the two of you just find someone to marry!" Hinata pointed this out to Neji, while Naruto just stood there red as a tomato.

"Yes, but Tokuhei is currently…in the doghouse with his partner and I can't seem to find love, so that's problematic. No girl my type has considered me as a lover. Someone strong, gorgeous, confident, knows how to thow a weapon as well as a punch, always trying to better herself as a shinobi and a person. To become stronger than she was yesterday." Neji pondered to himself while not noticing Tenten getting annoyed with him from behind. The frustration shortly became too much for the girl to handle, and she stormed off in the other direction.

"Oooo, looks like you're in trouble." Naruto tried to say through his blushing and frozen state, still shocked by Neji's previous bluntness in his relationship.

"I don't understand, what made Tenten so angry?"

In response to his confused demeanor, Lee placed his hand on Neji's shoulder "Neji-san, you may be a genius when it comes to close combat and the byakugan. But when it comes to reading the feelings of a woman, you're a complete fool. I mean just look at Naruto and Hinata. They're practically on the same wavelength! Withholding the fact Naruto has smoke coming out of him." Lee pointed out the similarities between the couple's hot red blushing, only to notice the wisps coming off Naruto's shoulder and face.

Naruto broke out of his trance to look at the smoke, also noticing the sudden rise in his body heat. Then out of nowhere, his head suddenly lit itself on fire. This caused a large panic to occur on the people nearby "What's going on here?"

"My head just caught on fire, that's what happened!" Naruto screamed as the flames on his head began to grow, and his crimson jacket also suddenly burst into flames.

This caused Hinata to take immediate action "Hold still Naruto-kun!"

**"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"**

Hinata's interference caused the flames engulfing her boyfriend's head to go out, along with most of the ones on his jacket. After the blast of wind Naruto immediately removed his coat and stomped out the small flames "Thanks for the save Hinata-chan. Now if only we knew where it came from."

"I think that we're about to find out. Everyone look out!" Neji said upon seeing a cartoonish red bomb coming their way, though it completely missed them and landed with an explosion nearby "Or not."

"Whoever's trying to kill me, they don't have very good aim."

"And unfortunately for them, I do!" Hinata growled with her Byakugan turned on before tossing several kunai where the attack came from. They knew who it was when they heard their squeal upon being struck by the kunai "Sakura-san."

"Why you bitch! How dare you lay a hand on someone as beautiful as me? You ugly cow!" Sakura shrieked at the other kunoichi while holding blue spheres which she tossed at Naruto. To their surprise, the spheres turned into arrows midway, which Naruto deflected easily.

**"La Flecha Azul"**

Even after seeing that her attacked completely failed, Sakura's arrogance didn't falter in the slightest "I'll give you one last chance to let Sasuke-kun go, and give him your title and rank. Otherwise I'll pound your head in just like the old days! But this time you'll have to deal with my Pigment-Pigment Fruit power."

"So you can control colors? Even your Devil Fruit power is laughably useless Sakura." Naruto said before noticing the golden color raising away from his head, causing it to turn a dull shade of gray.

"I can form anything from the colors I steal, and they'll have same affect of that object in real life. And maybe something a little extra." Sakura gloated while forming a small lightning bolt from the yellow ball she held "Now release my Sasuke-kun or get charbroiled baka!"

**"Olympic Lightning"**

Naruto didn't falter in the slightest seeing the drawing-like lightning bolt heading directly towards him, and drew out both his swords, intending to use a redirection technique. However before it could even get close, Hinata stepped in front of him, using Gentle Fist to endure the attack herself, returning the color back to Naruto. Ignoring the burns on her hands, Hinata turned her attentions to Sakura.

"That'll be you if you even think about trying to hurt Naruto-kun, you pink-haired slut!" Hinata flared with uncharacteristic anger, much to the shock of the others.

"Hinata-sama is arguing with someone? Aren't you going to try to stop this Naruto-sama?" Neji asked the swordsman next to him, who seemed a tad bit distracted.

"What a woman."

"Get out of my way Hinata! That dobe is a loser who has it coming. What you see in him I'll never know. If you were smart you would be trying to get…Sasuke." Sakura said slowly while having a false epiphany. After standing there for a few seconds, her blank expression turned into one of rage as she suddenly charged at Hinata "You bitch!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Don't play dumb you filthy whore! I've got you figured out; you knew that me and Sasuke-kun were inseparable through normal means, so you pretended to be in love with that Baka to make him notice you. But I won't let you have him!" Sakura ranted while swinging her easily dodged fists at Hinata.

This only made the Hyuuga girl angrier than before "You honestly think I would want the jackass who frickin _sexually harassed me _over the man who's been my inspiration to become stronger since I became a ninja? The man I almost lost six years ago?! You are an absolute disgrace!" Hinata yelled, preparing to get serious with Sakura. Or she would've had Lee not intervened at the last second, causing the girls to back away.

"Lee-san? What are you doing?"

"I apologize for my actions Hinata-san. Even though I won't fight you, I can't allow you to cause harm to Sakura-chan. Lee surprisingly said while blocking the fight.

"I can't accept that Lee-san. If I let this bitch go now, she'll just keep trying to kill Naruto. This has to stop!" Hinata said before cooling down and speaking to her enemy "We'll settle this in the training fields one hour from now. Come if your brave enough to face me."

* * *

An hour passed much faster than expected, though the time allotted allowed the news of the fight to spread like wildfire. The members of the Konoha 12 that hadn't been arrested, hospitalized, or killed in action had all gathered to see how things would turn out.

"I figured someone would try to bring down Sakura's ego eventually. I'm just surprised that it's meek little Hinata." Tenten voiced her view on the recent conflict between kunoichi.

"You can't be too surprised Tenten-san. Hinata-san is incredibly protective of Naruto-san, and Sakura's made it a habit to attempt at bringing down or controlling Naruto-san. This was bound to happen eventually."

"Shino is right Tenten. The only thing more obvious then this eventuality is what the results will be." Neji said to his teammate, only for her to completely ignore him and walk away "What did I do to her?"

_'How could someone with the Byakugan be so blind?'_

"I'm surprised Sakura hasn't shown up yet. I figured she'd be setting up traps with that Devil Fruit power of her's." Naruto said to his girlfriend, who was practicing her Gentle Fist on a nearby post.

"She better be if she wants to beat me."

Naruto nodded with equal confidence in Hinata, before sensing a very somber wave of emotions coming from nearby. He turned around to see Lee, lying against a nearby tree with an unsure and sick look on his face. Not far away from him Ino was looking up to the sky, as if reminiscing days gone by.

The swordsman had a sneaking suspicion what was wrong and approached "Lee, Ino. You both look like a meerkat with explosive diarrhea right now. I'm guessing that it's got something to do Sakura?"

"I just don't understand how sweet little Sakura could have turned out like this." Ino expressed her emotions, ignoring the crude comparison Naruto had just made "I knew we both had a thing for Sasuke, but I never imagined it would end in our friendship being torn apart. Even afterwards, she wasn't a raging bitch, but she just got worse year after year to everyone around her. Guess that's how she got kicked out of her parent's place."

"They made her into that by having her chase after Sasuke, but they couldn't handle the results. Not to mention Sasuke-teme was a pretty toxic influence. She may have been your friend for some time, but in the end I guess she showed her true colors. No pun intended." Naruto gave his perspective on the matter, only for Lee to speak out.

"You're wrong Naruto-san! I know Sakura-chan hasn't exactly had very bright flames of youth as of late. But I still believe that deep down, there's still some good in her." Lee objected to his friend's words.

"She broke her friendship with Ino off over an emo douchebag and used me as a punching bag from the time I was 8 up till I was 12. I doubt there was any good in her to begin with."

"Well you haven't seen the side of her I have!" Lee interjected, only to cover his mouth shut upon realizing what he'd just revealed. Before Naruto or Ino could explore what he just said, Sakura finally made her arrival.

"Alright Hinata, I'm going to give you one chance to admit your love for Sasuke-kun, and die quickly!" Sakura arrogantly said, while Hinata.

"How much bleach have you been drinking? The only thing I feel for that whiny shit is contempt!" Hinata insisted this to Sakura who didn't listen one bit.

"THEN DIE BITCH!" Sakura screeched while removing the color from the trees around her. After seperating the green from the brown, the weak kunoichi made a large wave of acid from the former.

**"Ácido Verde"**

**"Shadow Wall Jutsu"**

While Shikamaru used his own signature jutsu to protect the spectators Hinata easily leapt to safety and landed on the now gray branch of a tree. When she landed though, Sakura threw a pack of kunai and shuriken at Hinata, which had to be deflected or dodged. Angry that her attacks had been failing up to this point, Sakura used the brown color to form sharp, wool-like strings.

**"Fibra Marrón"**

Using the brown strings Sakura targeted her opponent with intent to kill, slicing up several trees in the forest. Hinata managed to dodge a majority of the wool fibers, only suffering a few small cuts here and there. Until she got tired of avoiding the attack, and dispelled it with her own.

**"Kaiten"**

"You'll have try a lot harder than that if you want to win this fight!" Hinata said while getting into the standard Hyuuga fighting position.

**"Bushin no Jutsu"**

"What are you going to do now? You mousy little waste of space!" All of Sakura's clones insulted her at once "Now that I have my clones, there's no way you'll be able to tell us apart! Meaning I can kill you with my strongest attack!"

**"Infierno de Flor de Cerezo"**

Using the pink color of her hair Sakura made a bushel of cherry blossom petals, which were either razor sharp or illusions from her clones. She spread out the petals around the battlefield, sure that victory would come from this attack. However this was very far from the case.

"She does realize that Byakugan can see through Bushin like any other dojutsu right?" Neji asked in disbelief that she was using the elementary jutsu.

"It's not like it matters. She was going to lose from the beginning even with her Devil Fruit power. As someone with one myself, I can tell she's only grasped the bare basics of what her Devil Fruit can do." Shino said while the others just watched silently, most notably Lee and Ino.

Despite the multiple cuts she'd received from the rotating petals, Hinata remained completely still and showed no signs of pain. That is until she started walking towards the group of clones, easily being able to pinpoint the real one with her Byakugan. Sakura only had time to gasp when she realized Hinata knew she was the original, before a hard punch was sent right into her face.

With Sakura having blacked out the attack dissapeared, and the colors she'd been using throughout the battle returned to their source. Hinata was prepared to leave Sakura alone in her defeat, only for the pink haired girl to get back up "You dare defy me like this? I was the Top Kunoichi of our class, and your just a nobody weakling! Your own clan didn't even want you!"

Sakura tried to charge Hinata in another desperate attempt, only for Lee to suddenly appear from behind and restrain her "Sakura-chan, enough of this foolishness! Please just accept your defeat!"

"No! This is all her fault! She's taken everything from me! She deserves to die!" Sakura delusionally ranted towards Hinata as Lee held her down. It was by this point Naruto pointed the sheathed Kurama at her.

"Sakura, the only thing Hinata-chan has done is stand up to your ego. The fight is over, so if you keep this up I'll have to place you under arrest."

"Shut your stupid mouth dobe! If you had just learned your place and stayed, everything would still be perfect. But you had to leave and become a criminal! You broke our team apart!" Sakura yelled at Naruto only to start breaking down into tears "Why did you leave? Why did you leave me all alone? You're supposed to love me! Not Hinata! You're supposed to be there for me after Sasuke-kun rejects me! You selfish bastard!"

Naruto felt himself getting angrier and angrier with his ex-teammate's whining only to finally explode at her last sentence "I'M THE ONE WHO'S SELFISH?! YOU EXPECTED ME TO NEVER FIND HAPINESS WHILE BEING STUCK WITH A TEAM THAT WOULDN'T GIVE A DAMN WHETHER I LIVED OR DIED, JUST TO KEEP SOMEONE WHO USED ME AS A PUNCHING BAG IN A HAPPY LITTLE FANTASY WORLD! I'M NOT YOUR LIGHTNING ROD SAKURA, I'M MY OWN PERSON AND I CAN BE WITH WHOEVER I WANT, AND NEITHER YOU NOR SASUKE-TEME CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE! YOU'RE FULL OF CRAP, AND I DON'T LISTEN TO CRAP! GOOD GRIEF, WHAT DID I EVER SEE IN SOMEONE LIKE YOU?! YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!"

One could hear a pin drop from the large silence that came through the training grounds after Naruto's rant against Sakura. Lee had now let go of Sakura who had now lost the will to fight "What am I supposed to do know? I already lost Sasuke-kun, I can't lose you to!"

"You lost me six years ago Sakura. There's one guy who might still want you, but you'll need to work a lot harder to actually deserve him. Actually become stronger Sakura and maybe I'll have some respect for you." Naruto broke to Sakura, who was crying crying her eyes out in the middle of the training grounds.

* * *

"So Inoichi-senpai, you're placing Sakura under mental care until further notice?" Naruto asked as he walked down the hallways of the Division 1 headquarters with Inoichi, Genma, Hinata, and Kurama.

"That sounds about right. She's proven herself to mentally unstable for shinobi work. We'll do what we can for her, but for now her stay at our division will be indefinite. But for know you need to worry about your own time, since your about to enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and all."

While the Division 5 captain and Naruto talked to each other Kurama merely walked along besides them, examining his old Division carefully _'I can't believe how little has changed since I died. It's almost as unbelievable as Kakashi taking my old post as lieutenant.'_

"So you've finally arrived have you? That's good, I was beginning to think you wouldn't show." Jiraiya said to the group as he sat down on a chair in front of a large white door with two dials embedded in it. The sannin was holding a newly forged katana with a navy blue scabbard, and an oval shaped tsuba. Besides him were the leaders of Division 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11.

That was the thing in the room that drew Naruto's eye the most "What do you have that katana for Ero-Sennin? Never pegged you as much of a swordsman."

"Laugh it up gaki. Keep playing that game and I'll just sell this thing. Raidō, give the gaki his sword." Jiraiya told the Division 6 lieutenant who immediately obeyed the order, by tossing the sword to Naruto.

Naruto examined the sword carefully with a smile before taking off the sheath to take a closer look at the blade itself. It had a dark grey color to it, with a forest green hamon "I like the design; should be damn good in a fight. Now what's its name?"

"Ww thought it would only be fair to name the sword after the one who forged it. The sword's name is Azuma!" Chouza explained with a smile on his chubby face.

"Now then we should probably explain the function of the chamber." Hisagi said before beginning his explanation of how it worked to those entering "The way time works inside the chamber is much different than on the outside. In fact it's deliberately designed to move slower. However this only the second version. We've made two important updates since then. Before the time was set per one day equaling one year, however we made it to where we can set up the passage of time inside. And you will also not come physically different than when you came out."

"Wait…if you don't come out any different then doesn't that defeat the purpose of training in there?" Kurama asked the Hyuuga clan leader.

Jiraiya quickly answered the question for him "Actually you'll still come out stronger than before, but your biological age won't be affected. We added than in because of a glitch which came around from time to time. Shinobi would either come out as old men or babies! Now then let's set the time to…A week per day. That'll give you fourteen days of training."

"What's with the specific amount."

"Simple. One of the agents you captured cracked under Anko, and revealed their base was right in the center of Amegakure. All Five Great Nations will be invading under our command in Kumogakure in exactly two weeks. That should give you more than enough time to figure out how to get through Yahiko's Rinnegan." Shikaku explained before Hiashi stepped forward and gave his news.

"Now there's something else I need to discuss. Hinata, you'll be joining Naruto and Kurama in the Time Chamber. You'll also be in the upcoming battle, and since you both make each other stronger, I think it's best you train together." Hiashi explained to his eldest daughter. While Hinata seemed surprised at first, she quickly grew a smile and nodded. This changed when Hiashi spoke again "Also, if you come out engaged, you can go back in for 9 days, and we can set it to a month."

"Isn't that the amount of time it takes for… w-we're not even married Otou-san." Hinata scolded her father for his impatience, while Naruto looked with a smile. Just then, the swordsman felt butterflies in his stomach when he looked at Hinata. He could tell why and felt very happy about it. Nothing mattered to him but being with her.

Something Ichigo saw right through and communicated telepathically '**_The idea of marriage doesn't seem so blocked by obstacles anymore does it gaki?'_**

_'Shut the hell up Kurama.' _Naruto responded to his tenant's teasing with a blush and a grin.

"Are you to go in boys? Hinata asked them, completely unaware of the subconscious conversation they were having.

"You know we are, Hinata-chan." Naruto said to his girlfriend with another grin. Now ready to stay for the next 14 weeks, the three walked into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, letting it seal behind them.

…

"You were kidding about the 9 day thing right Hiashi-sama?" Tokuhei asked his captain.

"Of course I was fricking kidding!"

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Deidera the Artist**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Kisame Hoshigaki **

**Itachi Uchiha**

**Zetsu Frankenstein **

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): Writer's block sure is a bitch isn't? There's the biggest reason this chapter took so long. The other is the fact the device I keep all the notes for my projects on straight up died while on vacation last month. Since I hadn't backed it up since before last arc ended, I lost a huge chunk of my project's prewriting, which will likely put a huge dent in the second half of the story. Then comes next chapter…I just don't know how it's going to work. On the one hand the type of chapter it is should make writing easy. But not only is my senior year starting in a few weeks, but I also get to go through the thrilling experience of getting my wisdom teeth removed. Joy bunnies.**

**I hope you all enjoyed Sakura's leave from the plot, which puts an ending to the story's bashing with the exception of Danzō. I hope you all aren't too pissed about the Devil Fruit power though. Fun fact, it was actually going to be named the Color-Color Fruit…only to find that Devil Fruit just came into existence during Heart of Gold. You can probably tell how happy I was about that.**

**Anyways hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review, and I'll see you next time!**

**Next Chapter: March to Amegakure**

**. . .**


	30. March to Amegakure

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Grand Pudding of Yorkshire. If I did then the Flying Sofas wouldn't steal my bacon every 7th Octember!**

**Greed: Has Skillet been hitting the cactus juice or something?**

**L: I don't think his grammar's that far off its normal quality. But if you're wondering his wisdom teeth being removed made him a bit loopy on anesthetics.**

**Skillet: What are you taking about L? I'm as well adjusted as a turnip in Antarctica's volcanic hot springs!**

**Maya:…But I'm Maya**

**Skillet: Of course you are Cedric!**

**Greed: Just go to chapter before he makes an even bigger ass of himself.**

**Skillet: You are tearing me apart Greed!**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki**

**Chapter 28: March to Amegakure**

* * *

"So you're absolutely sure you're comfortable staying here with us?" Shikaku asked the five Kage currently waiting in Kumogakure's capital building.

"Of course, I have full trust in all of our shinobi. We will only intervene in the battle, once absolutely necessary." Sarutobi said to the Division 6 commander.

"I don't know Sandaime-sama, it might be wiser to do a preemptive strike. These Akatsuki must be purged." Danzō said as he stood there alongside Sarutobi _'Hopefully Yahiko-me and the demon brat will destroy each other.'_

"Yes, but with all our shinobi on the case, it would be overkill to head in right from the start."

"This coming from the old fart who's sending all 13 of his Divisions out to fight them." A teased his fellow Kage concerning his military decisions.

Inoichi then turned to Genma and Raidō, who stood together waiting for orders from their respective captains "We want you two to lead Divisions 5 and 6 through the battlefield today. Me and Shikaku will stay here and direct the forces along the Kage."

"Yes, Captain. And what of Chouza and Kotetsu?" Raido asked his captain about the whereabouts of the other third of the 15 Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

The Yamanaka clan head quickly explained "Since he's the only one of us who acts as a physical attacker rather than strategic support, he'll be on the main battlefield."

"They'll need high ranking shinobi on the battlefield like him or Baki. Especially considering they likely already know we're coming and we'll be met with a whole army on the way there."

"And that's why we deployed all Five of our ANBU Black Op Divisions before anyone else Shikaku-san? What of the others?" Gaara asked the Division 6 captain.

"They will be dispatched not to long from now. Unfortunately my Gotei 13 has faced numerous issues lately. What with Anko and Kurenai having no lieutenants, and Division 4's leaders going AWOL. Division 12 has even been flat out disbanded." Sarutobi pondered have system's recent bad juju.

"Maybe you should try using Iwagakure's system, what with it being superior and all."

"Kurotsuchi, we must not insult the systems of other villages. Even if it is completely true." Onoki tried to stir the pot with the old rivalry between the villages.

"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."

"At least they haven't lost one of their Jinchuriki yet Onoki-sama. Anyways we should unleash our second within an hour from now. We should resume communications with ANBU." A said before picking up a nearby transponder snail "Ao, how is the invasion of the ANBU or Hunter-Nin proceeding."

_"We've made great progress so far Raikage-sama. We are nearing the exit to the Northeastern border of the Land of Wind. If the Akatsuki were this close to Suna all along, it might explain how easily they were able to break into Suna and Konoha."_

"Thank you for the report Ao. As long things go smoothly for you men, then we should be able to get the rest of our shinobi inside Ame's walls in no time."

_"…Is it too late to take back what we just said. We've definitely come across some resistance now." _Another voice came through the snail, which clearly belonged to Darui. Coming from behind his voice through the transmission was what appeared to be the sounds of a battle.

"What in heaven's name is going on out there Darui?" A asked through the transponder snail, both angry and confused.

_"They definitely knew we were coming. Right after we crossed the border, two, no three Akatsuki chairman appeared with a whole battalion of minor agents. We need back up, unleash our sec-" _The transmission cut off there.

"Well this isn't good at all. But at least Kisame-san's odds of surviving just increased monumentally so that's worth something." Mei said in an annoyed tone, while Onoki broke his teacup in anger.

"Easy for you to say Mizukage-sama. You didn't bet on this invasion going smoothly." The old Tsuchikage grumbled while handing the Hokage sitting next to him a stack of beris from his sleeve, before turning to his granddaughter "You should get to Konohha and join the rest of the Second Wave Kurotsuchi-chan. You're more needed there than here."

Kurotsuchi nodded and obeyed the order by dissapearing in a flash of dust. With the plan nearing it's official start Sarutobi turned to the Yamanaka head and gave the order "Inoichi-san, send the order to Jiraiya to start the invasion."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Inoichi said as he hooked up the telepathic communications device to his head. The battle against the Akatsuki had begun.

* * *

About 12 hours earlier, a large group of shinobi stood outside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber as they had been for the past hour. The countdown had been going down slowly for the past 2 weeks, and those inside the chamber were about to released. As you can expect those waiting outside were beginning to get anxious.

"I can't believe they've been in there for fourteen days already. I can't go 2 hours without food." Chouji shuddered at the thought of not being able to eat for that long.

Ino quickly sit him straight "Actually for every day that happens out here, an entire week passes in there. So they'd have to have gone without eating for about three months, but Jiraiya-sama has probably just been sliding food to them through the slot under the door."

"Besides, if they didn't have any food for that long, they'd have starved to death by now." Shino said creepily while eating a stick of pocky he had on hand. Ever since Kiba had died not to long ago, Shino had taken to wearing his hood down and glasses off, as well as developing an addiction to pocky sticks. Unfortunately for him, this resulted in a massive romantic following as he'd proven to be quite attractive under his wall of clothing.

"You're too creepy Shino, you know that." Ino said to the Aburame after his macabre statement. She quickly turned her attention to Neji as he topped her shoulder "What is it Neji-kun?"

"I need your advice Ino-san, since with Hinata-sama in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber you're the only girl I know I can turn to. Tenten has refused to talk me since Sakura tried to kill Naruto-sama 2 weeks ago. How do I get her to talk to me again?" Neji asked the kunoichi who nearly slapped her forehead in frustration.

"It might have something to do with the fact she's had a thing for you since you became a team, and you're a dumbass who's oblivious to her feelings."

Neji's jaw practically dropped to the floor upon hearing her blunt statement "Tenten…has feelings for me…This doesn't make any sense! But I suppose that you're more knowledgeable of the subject, what with your relationship with Chouji-san and all."

"Chouji?!" Ino practically screamed in shock upon hearing this suggestion before pulling the Hyuuga chunin closer, and angrily whispering "What the hell are you talking about together. Well he isn't exactly bad-looking, and he's pretty damn nice but…Where did you get that idea anyways."

"I'm sorry but you seem very close for teammates and you did spend a lot of time with him when he was hospitalized not long ago."

Meanwhile Ino's teammates were eavesdropping on the conversation with interest. Or at least Shikamaru did, while Chouji was blushing a cherry like red "Are they talking about me?"

"Hey trust me when I say that getting promoted to chunin doesn't exactly hurt a guy's attractiveness Chouji." Shikamaru supported his flustered companion with a pat on the back.

"She's held feelings for me all this time?" Neji had an epiphany regarding his relationship with his teammate, and looked around the room to see her talking with Lee nearby. Gathering all his courage, Neji began to approach her only for the chamber doors to slowly open, creating a large grinding noise as they scratched the ground.

Upon completely opening three figures walked out with smiles on their faces, looking almost identical to how they looked 2 weeks ago aside from increased muscle mass, and a few minor differences. Hinata now had her long blue hair tied back into a braid, while Naruto had a small red streak in his hair, he had inherited from his mother. Ichigo however, seemed completely identical to how he appeared upon entry.

"Feels good to be back again!" Hinata cheered with a smile upon her face, something which she shared with Naruto.

"You're telling me Hinata-chan! With the exception of being with you, it got really boring in there really fast after I cracked Pein's secret."

"What am I chopped liver?" Kurama said to his tenant with faux offense.

"Good to have you back man." Shikamaru said to his comrade as they exchanged high fives "Figure out any new techniques while you were stuck in there?"

"I might have come up with a few ideas."

"That is excellent Naruto-san! We must face each other in combat as soon as possible!" Lee said to his self proclaimed rival in his regular hot-blooded fashion.

"Focus on the matter at hand Lee. You can fight Naruto-sama after the Akatsuki has been taken care of." Neji said to his teammate, before his attention back to Naruto "It's great to see you back in the village Naruto-sama."

Naruto nodded to the Hyuuga before noticing what Chouji was wearing "You got promoted to chunin Chouji?"

"That's about right, after I beat Kakuzu they promoted me the second I got out of the hospital. And now I'm an official member of Division 9!"

Meanwhile the other two girls were talking to/grilling Hinata about details on her time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. However she was clearly having a much less positive time than the ambiverted Naruto "So did Naruto and you do anything particularly romantic inside?"

"Nothing much different than what we normally do like eating or kissing."

"That's pretty lame Hinata, but Naruto's pretty much got a heart of iron so what can you expect." Ino said, which got her a smack to the head.

"I never said it wasn't romantic!"

"I agree with Hinata-chan here Ino-chan. At least she's actually got someone romantic." Tenten growled in annoyance with her love issues.

Naruto grinned upon seeing everyone together again, despite the large conflict they were about to dive straight into. It was very similar to his short time on Water 7 with the Straw Hats. However his mood soon changed when he realized that someone was still missing. Someone he hadn't seen in weeks.

His smile turned into a frown upon noticing the absence, and he looked out the window to gaze at the cemetery nearby. He then looked at his new sword, remembering it's namesake who was only very recently buried, and sighed in frustration and sadness.

"It's hard to believe they're gone isn't it?" Hinata asked Naruto as she looked outside with him "And the one's responsible are still out there."

"Not really, Shikamaru already took out Hidan so that means Asuma-senpai can rest in peace. But Tucker-teme is still roaming free under Pein's protection." Naruto grumbled before thinking aloud again "I can only imagine how rough Kurenai-senpai is taking things. It can't be easy to lose a student and a lover on the exact same day."

"Don't jinx it Naruto-kun. I don't want to lose anyone else to the Akatsuki, you especially." Hinata said to her boyfriend who simply kept staring out the window as the seemingly endless rain kept going on outside "We will beat them tomorrow, I can't accept any other outcome."

"Heh, took the words right out of my mouth."

* * *

To say Kurenai was in a bad mood at the moment was a complete understatement. As of recent she barely stepped out of her apartment, only to get food and certainly not to get any missions with her lessened team. It was as if the weather outside perfectly matched her emotions.

She didn't even care about the new position she was recently offered as Captain of Division 2, and had half a mind to turn it down completely "I never would have been considered for the promotion if Asuma-kun hadn't died. He's just leaving me with all sorts of problems from beyond the grave." She stopped talking to herself upon hearing a knock at the door to her apartment.

"For the last time Anko-chan, snake acupuncture will not make me feel better." Kurenai said as she opened her front door, only to see another old friend of her's "Kakashi? What are you doing out this late at night, don't you have to prepare for the invasion tommorow?"

"That's funny, I could say the same of you. After all I'm only a lieutenant, whereas you're in charge of a whole division as it's captain." Kakashi said as he wrung the liquid out of his hitai-te and onto the tile.

Kurenai just huffed in response to his words "I never said I was going to accept the position. And for the record of you're trying to hit on me, you're definitely doing it at the wrong time."

"Do I really come across as that big a pervert?"

"Well you do carry a whole book of smut around with you." Kurenai joked as she poured herself a cup of tea, and served Kakashi a cup "It seems like our generation just keeps losing it's shinobi left and right nowadays."

"It's just like Minato-sensei always said, the new generation will always surpass the last."

After hearing this, Kurenai bitterly set her cup down "That wasn't the case for Asuma-kun or Kiba. Both of them were killed senselessly before the previous generation could wrap up. By those damn Akatsuki."

"Look on the brightside, if tomorrow goes well, we won't have to worry about them going around killing others anymore." Kakashi said with a smile before seeing the sad look on Kurenai's face "It's hard to lose the person you love. I know that feeling all to well. Right when I realized how much I needed her, she died by my hands."

"You mean Rin-chan?" Kurenai asked of her old school friend, only to remember that was a touchy subject for Kakashi "I'm sorry, I'm getting annoyed with you for talking about death, when here I am-"

"It's ok. I have to face the truth eventually. Rin-chan and Obito died because of me. Even if Niisan and Minato-sensei can somehow magically come back, they never will."

"I guess that's a good point. No amount of wishing or self-loathing will…Wait, what was about Yondaime-sama?" Kurenai realized what Kakashi just said, as he practically turned to stone from the horror.

_'Kakashi you fool! What did you say Minato-sensei for?!'_

* * *

A few hours later Minato, or who he was known by now, Cat was speeding through the rainforests leading into the Land of Rain. At the moment he and the other elite shinobi of the Five Great Nations were infiltrating the land where then Akatsuki made their home base.

"Cat, we're nearing the border between the Land of Wind and Rain. Will we have to make a report to home base soon?" Panda, the lieutenant of Division 13 asked his captain.

"Yes, but if they do need the report, odds are they'll just call us themselves." Cat said only for the transponder snail of a nearby Kumo ANBU to start ringing "Well speak of the devil."

_"Ao, how is the invasion of the ANBU or Hunter-Nin proceeding."_

"We've made great progress so far Raikage-sama. We are nearing the exit to the Northeastern border of the Land of Wind. If the Akatsuki were this close to Suna all along, it might explain how easily they were able to break into Suna and Konoha." Ao spoke into the snail, before his Byakugan eye, sensed something coming from nearby.

_"Thank you for the report Ao. As long things go smoothly for you men, then we should be able to get the rest of our shinobi inside Ame's walls in no time."_

**"Shigan"**

The transponder snail flew out of Ao's grasp when Lucci came out from the forest's cover with an attack. Luckily for Ao was able to defend due to sensing something like that was coming. A group of minor Akatsuki agents then came crashing outside the rain with Shou Tucker leading them.

"Wipe out them all, but leave their bodies intact. Some of them might make for interesting experiments!" Tucker said as he charged towards Panda who immediately defended with a large shield of wood.

**"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall"**

With the battle now well under way, Darui leapt for the transponder snail and began speaking into it "…Is it too late to take back what we just said. We've definitely come across some resistance now."

_"What in heaven's name is going on out there Darui?" _A asked on the other side of the snail, while Darui noticed someone, or rather something else coming from the trees.

"They definitely knew we were coming. Right after we crossed the border, two, no three Akatsuki chairman appeared with a whole battalion of minor agents. We need back up, unleash our sec-" Darui didn't have time finish upon being struck back by one of Zets's vines and held against one of the trees, along with several others who were unlucky enough to run afoul of Zetsu.

"It's a good thing you got so distracted by that snail just now. Humans are always such self destructive and foolish creatures."

**"Hirashin"**

Cat immediately took action against the plant-like humanoid by using his signature attack make a huge laceration into Zetsu. However while this released all the captives, Zetsu healed from this almost immediately "It's rather interesting to see the Yondaime Hokage using his signature attack, and even more so for it to be used on you."

"Now why did you have to do that? He could have wanted to keep that a secret? That's probably what the mask was for!" Zetsu began to argue with itself, while those both from Konoha and the other nations gazed at Minato, completely shell shocked.

Lucci also glared at the former Kage for a period, before coming to a decision "Genius, Jungle Rot. We don't stand much chance with a Kage amongst them. We need to retreat for now." Tucker tried to object, but realized that Minato could easily tear him to pieces, and followed the order along with the remaining Akatsuki agents.

"Minato-san. How are you possibly still alive?" Ao asked his old war rival while approaching slowly.

"That's not important right now. What is that we make an opening for the second wave to get to Amegakure. Things are going to be a lot harder for them now that they know we're coming." Minato said as he turned back onto the path. Unfortunately not all of the Akatsuki were gone just yet.

_'So there are more coming? I better notify Artist to set up a blockade.'_

* * *

With the order having been given to dispatch from the main headquarters, all of the 11 remaining Division began to organize into seperate groups divided amongst the Allied Forces. Most of the shinobi who were being sent out to fight were currently grouping either into their eight or four man squad, depending on their rank and team status.

At the moment one group was waiting in the Inuzuka clan cemetery, waiting for one of the clan's newest member to finish some business there "Kiba-kun, I'll make sure you can rest in peace after today."

"Don't get to set on the bastard Isaribi-san. Cause I'm killing the bastard myself when I see him." Naruto said at the thought of the former captain, before pulling out a bottle of expensive sake out from under both his normal crimson jacket, and his chunin flak jacket, he wore specifically for the invasion. He cracked it open and proceeded to our it's contents over his friend's grave "Sorry I missed your funeral dog breath. But I'll make it right today."

With his brief talk to his friend's grave finished, Naruto turned to the small group he'd been placed in with with a determined leer and looked at each of them. Isaribi Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee, Kotetsu Hagane, Yugito Nii, Ryo Kobayashi, and Akatsuchi were all ready to go. He nodded signaling he was just as prepared.

The group of mixed shinobi then ran out into the battlefield along with the other hundreds of groups being dispatched from Konoha. After about an hour and a half of sprinting into enemy territory, the group had made it to the Amegakure border. Once she'd made sure they weren't being watched, Yugito spoke to the others.

"Naruto, you've interacted with the Akatsuki more than anyone of us. Do you have anything else we should know about them." The blonde Kumo kunoichi asked.

"You've already seen that paper woman and the masked man, and their Devil Fruit powers. I know for a fact that more of them have Devil Fruits. Deidera the Artist, a former hitman from Iwagakure with a power that can let him make pseudo-life forms from nothing but clay, and Rob Lucci. I know all too well of his Cat-Cat Fruit Power: Leopard Model."

"Not to mention they probably have more Ochichite among them besides Reaper and Tucker-me." Isaribi said with venom in her voice at the mention of her former captain.

"And some of their agents likely have more than a few tricks up their sleeves. I fought one once with the Nerve-Nerve Fruit, which allowed him to control and add nerves to anything in contact with his body." Naruto said while remembering his old foe "We'll need to come up with a plan to get around the chairman, because odds are once Pein learns there are Jinchuriki in the invasion he'll send that damn statue in."

"Depending on the strength of the chairman at hand, it would be smart to have one or two of our group stay back to hold them off while the Jinchuriki and the remainder of the group head further into enemy territory." Ryo suggested his idea for a strategy.

"That way we can pick off the chairman one by one, before we take down their leader!"

"Don't say it like it will be easy Kotetsu-san. Yahiko has defeated our forces in battle twice already. It wouldn't be a stretch to believe that he has more than a few surprises for us this time." Shino stated coldly while he eating another pocky stick, and his beetles ate the crumbs "And at least one of the chairman in the organization are even stronger than Yahiko."

This decreased the morale for a brief amount of time before Lee spoke up in his normal hot blooded fashion "But with all five of our villages working together in a youthful alliance I know we can defeat these scoundrels! I swear it on my flames of youth."

_'…Who is this weirdo again.' _Yugito thought to herself completely stoic in response to the eccentric shinobi kneeling next to her. However her thoughts shifted to something else upon seeing a peculiar white bug crawling on the tree they were standing on, and she came to horrible realization "Everyone get off this tree! We're being spied on!"

In response to her warnings, the group immediately jumped down and avoided the bug. Upon landing they watched as the tree suddenly burst into flames. Naruto thought about what could be the cause, and realized the most obvious conclusion of who was responsible. He looked to the sky to see Deidera laughing maniacally as he stared down on the group.

"Jungle Rot and Pein-same figured you all out rather quickly. It's a shame things had to come to an end so quickly, but then again the art of war is like all art, tragic and fleeting." Deidera said as he leered down onto the group like a hawk watching it's prey before jumping off his clay bird and into the trees to begin his battle "I see you have two Jinchuriki among you? Catching both of you would mean I could get Pein-sama to forget my defeat by #1. Let's see I hate you more #9, so I think I'll sta-"

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

Naruto, Yugito, Shino got into fighting stances down below with their respective tenants, but were completely outspend by Lee who within moments was already midair and knocking Deidera several yards back with a single kick. After emerging from the debris Lee had kicked him into, Deidera seemed very surprised and very pissed off.

"What…the…hell!"

"I recognize you from the mission in Īsuki Pīku. You are the Akatsuki chairman they call Deidera the Artist, correct?" Lee asked before getting into a fighting stance "I am Rock Lee, a proud shinobi of Konohagakure. And I will be your opponent."

"You're not getting in my way freak! Get out of my way so I can turn those Jinchuriki into art!" Deidera yelled at the chunin blocking his way.

"Lee this guy may be a moron but he's still pretty strong. Are you sure you can take him on?" Naruto asked his friend who merely responded with a smile and a thumbs up. That was all the answer Naruto needed "Got it; let's keep moving and leave the rest to him!"

"Are you sure we should leave him alone there to fight that chairman Roronoa-san? It could easily end horribly for him." Isaribi voiced her concerns, only for Shino to interject.

"Don't worry about him. Lee-san may be a very strange person, but that doesn't change the fact that he's one of Konoha's most powerful shinobi. I have complete faith that he can defeat Artist."

Isaribi opened her mouth to say something again only to remain silent as she and the rest of her group continued on their path to the main headquarters of the Akatsuki.

* * *

Getting up from the ditch Lee launched him into, Deidera coughed up more blood and glared at his opponent "You remind me of that guy Brother is always droning on about, Maito Gai. You're his student aren't you, the one who ate the Dash-Dash Fruit?"

"Yes, I am the student of the great Maito Gai along with Tenten Virgo and Neji Hyuuga."

"Then that explains how you were able to just attack me out of nowhere like that. You used your Devil Fruit power to speed up here and attack me." Deidera scoffed before brushing his hair from his face and showing off the mouths on his hands "Using Devil Fruits against me is pointless no matter how strong they make you. Because I also ate one, the Sculpt-Sculpt Fruit to be exact."

"Actually I already knew you ate a Devil Fruit. Naruto-san told me before you arrived." Lee said straightly, which came as a surprise to Deidera. What Lee said next surprised him even more "And I wasn't using my Devil Fruit then. I don't use it except as a last resort."

"Oh really? Then that means you're going to have a real hard time avoiding this." Deidera said lazily before having the clay bird he was riding on before come down and hit the ground, causing an explosion which cleared a large portion of the forest.

**"Avian Grenade"**

Deidera was able to escape the blast with ease, and moved a distance away to make sure he'd killed his opponent. Using the scope he kept on his other eye, Artist looked at the blast zone for any signs of life. After finding nothing he zoomed out, and winced upon seeing a green blur heading right towards him.

"Damn it, how much art am I going to have to make for you." Deidera growled as he quickly stuck his hands back into his clay pouches.

**"Rocket Stinger"**

Lee easily avoided the hornet shaped bombs, and with a loud battle cry swung a kick at Deidera's head. The Akatsuki chairman barely avoided the attack, and got a very good look at his opponent while he was flying above him. The hot blooded ninja quickly recovered from his failed attack, and made another go at Deidera.

This time however Deidera could only block desperately from the flurry punches, chops, and kicks Lee was setting upon him. He looked back with his peripheral vision and winced upon realizing Lee had been slowly but surely forcing him off the branch. Remembering that a certain technique of his benefited from being in midair, Deidera tried to prevent that scenario by using one hand to dig in his pouches and open fire.

**"Explosive Clay Cannon"**

Using a very small window of opportunity Deidera blocked Lee again, only this time creating a small explosion in his left hand. The recoil from the blast caused Lee to be launched back, which allowed Deidera to place several clay beetles onto his chest and abdomen.

**"Beetle Mines"**

Lee was pushed back to the trunk of the tree, coughing up blood and forced down from the injuries inside his body. Before he had time to get back up, Deidera grabbed his throat and raised him off the branch "It's a shame I have to make such an ugly person into art. But I guess the beauty of an explosion is a step up."

Deidera's words turned out to make things worse for him as Lee used his legs to grab onto the Akatsuki chairman's waist from above ground and deliver an blunt and painful headbutt to his face. While his opponent grabbed his assaulted face in pain, Lee took the chance to sweep his legs out from under him, causing Deidera to plummet off the tree.

While he tried to slow his descent he noticed Lee was following him down. Deidera winced as this was the situation he was trying avoid, but couldn't do anything about it as the bandages around Lee's arms had already begun to constrict him. Now a rotating human missle, Deidera could only scream as Lee brought him crashing to the ground.

**"Front Lotus"**

Despite the serious beating Lee's attack gave him, Deidera somehow managed to construct a new clay bird and flew away with intent to escape "I can't afford to waste anymore time on this moron. I need to focus on stopping the invaders and capturing the Jinchuriki with them!'

"You're not getting away from that easily!" Deidera looked down to see Lee was charging after him through the forest in hot pursuit.

"Would you buzz off, you stupid bowl headed freak of nature!" Deidera screamed in frustration before having his hand consume even more explosive clay to fire on the taijutsu specialist.

**"Hummingbird Triad: Swiftful Seekers"**

Artist then fired tons of speedy hummingbird shaped bombs out from his hand, which flew in a beeline towards a now midair Lee. But to Deidera's surprise and annoyance, Lee completely avoided them all and was now heading straight for him.

**"Leaf Hurricane"**

"Damn you! Would you just stay down already!" Deidera screamed as he was knocked from his bird, before attacking Lee with it once again.

**"Avian Grenade"**

Thanks to Lee being right up on the bird at the time, he was caught in the blast and descended back down to the ground only barely holding onto consciousness. Both he and Deidera crashed back into the forest within a few moments, though the latter made a clean landing onto a tree, Lee impacted into a large crater from the fall.

"Not much of an artwork, his body is still intact. I better top it off so his corpse will become true art." Deidera said while preparing to blow Lee to smithereens, only for Lee to rise back up from the crater. Though he had blood streaming from his mouth and several scorch marks coating his body, the chunin didn't appear to be anymore exhausted than when he started to fight.

"You're still standing after all that art? There's no way you can't be using your Devil Fruit power to stay alive somehow.' Deidera growled with obvious frustration in his voice "But what I want to know is why you're even fighting me. You can't get close to me without getting blown up, and you're just defending a bunch of demon freaks that should be put down. Why would someone be stupid enough to do that, even an ugly weirdo like you."

"Because, one of those so-called demon freaks, is my eternal rival." Lee looked the Akatsuki chairman dead in the eye with a large grin "He and Neji are my goals to beat, and my comrades that I hold dear. And even after I one day surpass them both, I will not let anyone harm them. Because then my hard work would've gotten me nowhere. And that would cause me to go against my vows that I made so long ago, to my sensei and the woman I love."

* * *

_Flashback no Jutsu_

"Alright kids, keep your legs moving. Otherwise I'll make you run 200 more laps." Mizuki said as he ran his class around the training fields, not paying attention to what they were saying to a much younger Lee.

"What an idiot. Someone like you'll never be a ninja in a million years!"

"Yes I will!" Lee said while keeping his determined nature.

"Oh gag me, there's no way Division 8 will ever let someone who can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu graduate from the academy."

"Yes they will!"

"I don't know what you're thinking. You can't do any ninjutsu or genjutsu and your taijutsu sucks too. The fact that someone like you is here with the rest of us is an absolute disgrace."

Another one of the students than rammed himself into Lee "Do you know what everyone else here is calling you?"

"Rock Loser!"

"Rock Loser!"

"Rock Loser!"

Lee couldn't take the teasing anymore, and he ran off in the opposite direction, to Mizuki's irritation "Hey gaki get back in line right now!"

The hot blooded academy student ignored the Division 8 chunin and ran away from the bullies at top speed. He wanted to run back to his apartment where no one could find him, but he still had trouble finding his way home since both his parents had gone. This resulted in him running to a nearby field, hoping no teachers would find him and bring him back.

Unfortunately he had just ran to the field where Division 8 was teaching first year kunoichi to blend in to the environment "Oh crud, I've got to get out of here. Maybe I can blend in with some black and white flowers. Are there even any black and white flowers in existence?"

"Excuse me, guy with the funny eyebrows. The field is being used for the first year Kunoichi class so you should probably leave before you get in big trouble." A younger pink haired girl said to him curiously, resulting in him backing up with a blush.

"Please forgive me miss! I just needed a place to hide from my Academy instructor Mizuku-sensei." Lee quickly apologized to the girl with a bow.

"Well you shouldn't hide here. The boy and girl classes are divided so if you're caught here, you'll be in a lot of trouble!" The girl said in a concerned voice before thinking aloud "But why would you be hiding from your Academy instructor? You're not skipping are you?!"

"w-What, no! i-I mean yes! i-I mean…I don't know." Lee said with confusion as he sat back down and looked to the grass "I just had to get away from there. I couldn't take anymore of the bullying."

"Your _teacher _is bullying you?!" The girl said, shocked at the idea.

"No, it's just classmates. I'm a second year so we've started the actual chakra course; the only problem is I have a chakra disorder that keeps from doing genjutsu or ninjutsu. My father left after learning that, and my mother was so angry tried to burn me with an iron. Now she's in Division 5's mental institution and I don't have any more family left."

"How could your own parents do something so horrible to you because of something uncontrollable? My parents have always been so nice, like my mother always telling me about my soulmate Sasuke Uchiha. I haven't met him before but if he's my soulmate he must be a nice guy. But then again everyone else's parents say that except for Ino's and some shy girl with blue hair."

"Soulmates? Does such a thing even exist?" Lee pondered aloud while the pink haired girl sat down next to him in the field.

"Well my friend Ino says the whole thing sounds pretty out there, and she's prett smart. She's pretty and brave too! I now she'll become a greater kunoichi than me." Sakura said proudly as she thought of her friend "I hope I can catch up to her one day though."

"Well well, looks like the Kouhi no Gaku **(Forehead Queen…I think. If I've got it wrong say so and I'll correct it) **Sakura Haruno. And no pigs to protect you eh? You should no better than to go around showing that ugly face of yours without someone slightly less ugly to block it." A purple haired girl said as she strutted towards the two with her two friends. This girl was Ami, who often took to harassing her classmates that she considered beneath her.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore Ami-me! You can't pick on me anymore!" Sakura declared, though her legs and voice were shaking from nerves.

Ami easily sensed this fear and grabbed a large clod of dirt from the field "You shouldn't talk back to me like that Gaku-chan! I think you need to be taught a lesson!" The purple haired Academy student thrust the dirt forward with intent of smearing it Sakura's face.

However before contact could be made Lee stepped in the way and took the filthy blow. He then looked at the bully with passionate eyes and said with just as much fervor "Stay away from this girl you dog! I will not allow you to harm someone for no good reason!"

"Grrrrrr, you loser!" Ami screamed in a temper tantrum before kicking Lee right in the nuts. While Lee was down she had the others start kicking, punching, and spitting on him. All while Sakura watched in horror.

"No! Ami please stop it!"

"That'll teach you, you stupid boy! I'm telling!" Ami said before running off to their instructor "Suzume-sensei, there's a boy in the flower fields.

The beaten and bruised Lee sighed in disappointment, before he felt something lifting him off the ground and dragging him toward the nearby dirt road. He looked to see that Sakura was carrying him on the way there. Once they were at the path, Sakura laid him down and allowed him to stand on his own.

"There's a secret passage to some training grounds by a maple tree a couple yards down the road. You can take a shortcut back to the village there. That way Suzume-sensei can't find you." Sakura explained while pointing in the direction of the passageway.

"Thank you, I am ever grateful for your kindness Miss." Lee said while bowing again.

It's then Sakura realized something she'd forgotten "That's right, I never actually gave you my name. You've probably picked it up by now, but my name's Sakura Haruno."

"And my name's Rock Lee. It was a gift meeting you Sakura-chan!" Lee said with a smile and salute, only to get a surprise. Being careful not to cause further harm to his bruises, Sakura planted a kiss on her new friend's cheek, much to his shock.

"Hey Lee, I'm not really sure if this soulmate thing for real or not. But if this Sasuke person turns out to be a huge jerk, can you be my soulmate?"

Lee felt the world him go completely blank upon being asked that question, and he just stood there for a few moments. When he realized what was happening again he answered "Yes, thank you for this opportunity Sakura-chan!"

"See you later Lee-kun! You might want to go before Suzume-sensei comes looking for you." Sakura said before running off while Lee watched her. After she was out of sight Lee ran down the dirt road, following her directions exactly. That is until he reached the training grounds.

It was when he saw the poles he glared at them before kicking them with incredible fury "I will become a splendid ninja and prove all of them wrong! That's the only I shall be worthy to be with her!"

* * *

_'I never did see her again after that encounter. I heard she had made it onto a team with the Rookie of the Year, Sasuke Uchiha and the Dead Last who's name would later becomes known throughout the world, Naruto Uzumaki. I finally saw her again during the Chunin Exams but…'_

_She immediately reviled and screamed "No way. You're a weirdo!"_

_'She didn't remember me. But that doesn't matter, even if she's different now I can change her back to the kind and considerate girl I met that da-'_

**"Explosive Clay Cannon"**

Lee was broken from his thoughts of the past when he had to avoid another explosive blast from the hands of Deidera as he made several jumps back while Deidera followed him with intent to keep firing "You shouldn't think aloud during a battle you idiot!"

"You heard everything I was thinking?!"

"Not exactly. But even so blanking out is a pretty stupid move. Now prepare to gorgeous you ugly freak!" Deidera said as he began to fire again "What's the matter leaf ninja? Are you frightened by the magnitude of my artwork? Shaking in your hideous green spandex? My artwork is stronger than any other opponent you've ever fought before!"

**"Rocket Stinger"**

After avoiding more blasts from Deidera, Lee landed on one of the branches that hadn't been blown to pieces and told his opponent "Actually you're far from the strongest opponent I've faced before. The strongest was the Godaime Kazekage during the Chunin Exams. Even without a demon weapon his attacks were blazing with the flames of youth."

It was then Deidera realized something about not only this fight, but his last fight with Gaara as he remembered the Kazekage saying something _"Really? We're both long range attackers so at least we'll know what to expect. I've fought two close range fighters in the past, both of whom managed to break through skintight armor of sand and take advantage of my physical weakness. As a result I've been training my body as well as the powers of my Biju."_

_'You've got to be kidding me! This ugly freak managed to break through #1's armor after completely trounced me back then?' _Deidera thought to himself in shock before beginning to chuckle and enter his pockets "That's how I'll get my revenge on him! If I can't turn him into art I'll just make you into a lovely piece to rub in his face!"

"By art you mean those explosions you make with your Devil Fruit? That's foolish! Art is supposed to encompass everything beautiful and youthful ablut life and the world around it. But your explosions are just senseless destruction with out any real purpose!" Lee scolded the Akatsuki chairman for his twisted views. Now Deidera was pissed off to the extreme.

"You dare…insult my art…you dirty fool my explosions are the very epitome of artistic beauty. You'll understand that when your part of one!" Deidera screamed in rage while pulling out a sculpture of clay from both of his hands that took the form of a massive dragon "Your sentence for your insolence is death!"

**"C2"**

Lee gaped in shock upon seeing the beast of clay, while Deidera mounted the dragon and began ascending the air. While the hot blooded chunin was confused as to why he was taking this action, he winced upon realizing the function of the dragon. The clay creature began dropping balls of clay from its maw, which turned into smaller drakes.

"How does it feel now freak? These things have heat seeking abilities so you can't dodge them unlike my Rocket Stingers. You can't outrun them now! Unless you use your Devil Fruit power!" Deidera screamed as Lee tried to escape the dragons heading towards. Unfortunately he couldn't go fast enough and got caught in a midair explosion.

_'He's going all out against me now, so if I don't let my flames of youth burn brighter I'm going to lose. I have to open more gates.' _Lee thought to himself while ignoring his descent through the forest and burns as more dragons impacted on him and detonated.

**"Kyūmon"**

**"Seimon"**

Deidera smiled wildly upon seeing his burnt up and bleeding opponent fall into the woods and screamed insanely "That's what you get for insulting art!" Artist spoke to soon as he saw that Lee was standing up again looking even more alive, with his skin turning red and steam coming from his body.

"What the hell? You look even more hideous than before. I'll just have resort to other measures to defeat you." Deidera said as he placed his hands back into his clay pouches. However while he was making his next attack, he'd forgotten Lee was running up to his dragon. As a result of this he was unprepared for Lee to kick him into the air off the now disintegrating dragon, before he was hit around in midair again several times.

This ended when Lee tied his bandages around Deidera while opening even more gates. After hitting Deidera down one final time, he used the bandages to grab him and pull him back up before punching him straight in the gut. However Lee didn't notice that Deidera was holding something else which he hit during his attack.

**"Reverse Lotus"**

**"C3"**

As a result of them hitting each other at almost identical times, both were knocked back in opposite directions, with Deidera getting launched downward into a crater while Lee was sent even further upward from the massive explosion. Once he was landing in the ruins of the forest again, Lee used what was left of his strength to grab a nearby branch to pull himself up.

"Did that do it? Is he down?" Lee asked as he laid down against the trunk of the tree and looked at the crater he'd put Deidera in seeing his unconscious body in the hole. He smiled upon thinking he'd won only for the body to begin expanding only to suddenly explode into nothing.

**"C4"**

Before Lee could realize what happen he began to start coughing up even more blood. He began to start moving again only for the real Deidera to appear before him with an excited look "You may be wondering what that was just now. That was my specialized C4 bomb. It unleashes millions of microscopic bombs into the air, and destroys anything unlucky enough to take them in at a cellular level!"

Lee began panting heavily from the pain of the hundreds of minuature explosions going off in his body at once as he watched the forest around him and his skin begin to decay from the attack _'I can feel my flames of youth beginning to dim out. Was this really a lost fight to begin with? I am sorry Naruto, please defeat this man where I could not…"_

_…_

_…_

_…_

"Well that was a waste of time. The art's just not as good if their just disintegrating instead of actually exploding. Guess it can't be helped; I better get back to hunting down #2 and #9. They couldn't have gotten too far yet." Deidera began to make another clay bird after turning away from his fallen opponent.

"No…I refuse to let it end like this. I won't lose to you. I…will…WIIIIIIIN!" Lee cried as out as he stood back up and once again turned as red as a tomato.

"What?! There's no way you could even stand right now, much less fight!" Deidera exclaimed in disbelief before using his scope to get a closer look at Lee's pulsing veins "No way! He's boiling the clay out of his blood!"

"You will not…lay a finger…on my comrades…" Lee said slowly as he approached Deidera with gallons of steam coming out of his burning skin.

"No! Stay back!" Deidera said in complete terror before he tried to escape by flying off on his clay bird again. Lee wasn't deterred by this at all and launched off after the Akatsuki member with a kick so strong it knocked down entire rows of trees.

**"Keimon"**

Deidera only had a few seconds to turn around and see Lee was flying towards him. Now completely desperate to avoid his fate, he screamed in fear "NO! WAIT! PLEASE!"

**"Morning Peacock"**

The Akatsuki chairman found his bird destroyed by the sheer amount of killing intent Lee was emitting before he was once again kicked into the air, knocking off his scope. Lee then shadowed him before punching and slapping him at a speed undetectable by the naked eye, eventually getting so fast they were lit on fire by the force of the friction, forming a fan of flames around Deidera.

Now both men were sent crashing back to the ground for the umpteenth time that day, with Deidera being covered in flames and having his hair forced down by the attack. Lee collapsed on the ground the very second he landed, having practically torn his body apart by using all his strength in the battle.

"I did it, I beat Artist. I hope that bought you all at least a little bit more time against the rest of the Akatsuki." Lee said with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face, only for that smile to turn into a look of horror when he saw Deidera somehow getting back up.

"Congratulations you ugly freak. You've managed to kill me. I can already feel my soul slipping away from the rest of my body. But if I'm going to hell, THEN I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!"

Deidera took off his Akatsuki cloak revealing several stichings all over his body, including one with black markings right next to his heart. He began to pull out the stitches using the hands on his mouth, and pulled out the last of his clay from his pouches. When the stitching was undone, another mouth was revealed on his chest "This is the ultimate power of the Sculpt-Sculpt Fruit. It will turn me and everything around me into art. Bet you wish you could use your Devil Fruit power now don't you freak? But you can't even move your legs to escape the blast! Farewell Rock Lee, I'll see you in hell!"

Deidera smiled as he fed the clay into the mouth, resulting in his skin becoming transparent and showing only his chakra network. And in the middle of it all was his small black soul which consumed the clay as well, as it pulled in Deidera's organs and leered at Lee. The soul then began crack and glow with white light, before exploding in a blaze of glory.

**"C0"**

The massive white explosion consumed everything around with ease. At it's climax it looked like a form stretching it's arms out with pretentious pride. By the time it was over there was even larger crater than previous. Lee just accepted his fate as everything around him turned white.

_'That's strange, dying doesn't really bad. It almost feels as if I've fallen asleep. It feels as though I could wake up in heaven at any moment.'_ Lee thought to himself, before realizing he still felt his physical body which should have been obliterated by Deidera's suicide.

He opened his eyes to see that was somehow right outside the radius of the blast. He searched his head for anyo idea of how he might have survived, only to realize he was being carried. Lee barely turned his head to get a look at his savior and instantly recognized them.

"Gai-sensei?" Lee asked, shocked upon seeing his teacher holding him up "I thought you would be at Amegakure doing the invasion with the rest of the alliance?"

"I was Lee, but when Naruto told me you stayed behind to face a chairman in a youthful duel, I gave my command to Hayate and came here to help you." Gai explained before looking around at what used to be the battlefield "Though I see you already cleaned things up around here."

"I'm sorry for making you leave the battlefield Gai-sensei. I just wanted to help my allies, and be a splendid ninja!" Lee managed to croak out through his aching body, before Gai hugged him.

"You don't have to prove your a splendid ninja anymore Lee. You've proven that fact today by defending the honor of your home. You are my student…and it may not be by blood, but you are my son." Gai said while he held his student who began to cry tears of joy.

"GAI-SENSEI!"

However despite this victory, the final battle against the Akatsuki had only just begun.

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Kisame Hoshigaki **

**Itachi Uchiha**

**Zetsu Frankenstein **

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): Hey there. Greed's here to give you the scoop. Normally Skillet would do this but he's**

**Skillet: Everybody betrayed me I'm fed up with this wurld!**

**…Yeah. Bet you humans were surprised about Lee fighting Deidera eh? Well I was too, but apparently this genius had the match up in his head for awhile. So I couldn't do anything about it. Anyways Cedric's story Voodoo's Disciple is starting again soon, so that could cause some trouble for this story's production. Not to mention school' starting next week. Better not tell Skillet that. But then again the next chapter will be another fight one, so that should come quickly depending how sucky the semester will be. Joy. You know what, I'm not much for rambling on like Skillet, just get to the ending.**

**Skillet: They betrayed me, they didn't keep their promise, they tricked me, and I don't care anymore**

**Next Chapter: Epic Sword Battles of History **

**. . .**


	31. Epic Sword Battles of History

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then…Aw screw it what's the point.**

**L: What's wrong Skillet? Depressed that school's started back up again?**

**Skillet: Well…Yes I'm absolutely drained like the rest of my family. But it's Bleach that's bugging me.**

**Greed : Oh you were upset with how it ended?**

**Skillet: Not really, I thought it was fine. Granted they could have explored some more of the other characters besides the main group and Aizen but other than that it was ok! It's the fan reaction that bugs me. Everywhere I go involving Bleach, people are bitching about the shipping!**

**Maya: But aren't you in the percentage that got the ships they wanted?**

**L : But he didn't particularly dislike the other ship very much. **

**Skillet: I would have been okay if they'd gotten together, or if I wasn't I'd be mildly annoyed at worst. People are acting as if the ending ships poisoned them or something!**

**Greed: But wasn't that how Naruto went in the long run?**

**Skillet: Yes, yes it did. And it's still disappointing. I hope One Piece doesn't develop a fandom shitstorm like this. Guess I'll have to stay off the Bleach page for awhile to avoid headaches.**

**Maya: So the moral of the story is stay away from social media?**

**Skillet: Unfortunately you're right.**

**Arc 2: Siege of the Akatsuki **

**Chapter 29: Epic Sword Battles of History**

* * *

Not long after the end of the battle between Deidera and Lee, several of the Akatsuki's remaining chairman waited for the upcoming battle with both anxiety and excitement on the metal piping of Amegakure. In particular Tucker and Kisame were looking forward to avenge their previous humiliation by a certain blond swordsman.

"This is going to be a rather interesting battle. I wonder how much time it will take for me to me to turn half their forces into chimeras. Now that would be an interesting experiment. I can only imagine what a Jinchuriki chimera would look like!" Tucker said with excitement as he exchanged the chemicals in his mechanical arm.

"Cool it Genius. You've already gotten your revenge on Cinderface-san by killing the Inuzuka heir. Any further action against him aside from removing the Kyuubi would be unnecessary." Itachi scolded the newest chairman in the organization.

This didn't faze Tucker in the slightest "Killing Inuzuka-san was only the icing on the cake for what I plan to do to him Genocide-san! I'm going to kill each and everyone of his loved ones and make him watch before I disembowel him with his own swords! Then I can experiment with his corpse. Maybe I'll put the eyes of that Hyuuga he's with in the chimera's forehead!"

"He must be completely insane!" Itachi mewled to himself, disturbed by Tucker's plans.

"Try being paired with him." Lucci said before standing up from the pipe he was resting on "In any case at least some of their armies have likely been wiped clean by Artist by now. And none of you will be able to fight Cinderface anyways going with the checkmate plan Pein-sama has set up."

"Well that's great, I was looking forward to skinning that brat alive. And I'm guessing you'll be the one to stay here and finish him off right Justice." Kisame asked while putting the Samehada back in its holder.

"You two aren't the only ones who have a bone to pick with him Brother. I still owe him and the rest of the Straw Hats for what happened at Enies Lobby two years ago." Lucci said darkly, only for him to notice Konan was flying their way with a scroll in wing.

"I have highly important news from Pein-sama. Apparently Artist's blockade failed at stopping a single one of the invading forces, and he was killed in battle."

"Damn it! First Heartless and Reaper now this bullshit!" Kisame growled in anger at the news as he jabbed one of the nearby pipes with Samehada. Itachi was equally frustrated though he expressed it with a silent scowl.

But Lucci just seemed indifferent Shou Tucker had a much more excited reaction to the news of his comrades death, as he pushed up his glasses with a smile "This is great news Angel-sama. I wonder if can make any experimental chimera from his corpse, if the Devil Fruit power hasn't faded yet that is."

While this callous lack of empathy for the fallen Deidera disturbed Itachi and Konan, it outright pissed off Kisame who grabbed his sword and pointed it at Tucker's neck "I don't want to hear another word out of you, got that?!"

"Stupid fish. You should know your place compared to a human. Especially a great one such as me." Shou Tucker said coldly to the fishman as he pushed up his glasses, which only angered Kisame even more.

Before the fight could escalate any further Sasori stepped in "Stop it you fools! This meaningless bickering is getting us nowhere! Save your anger for the invaders and their Jinchuriki! Besides, that idiot probably blew himself up so there wouldn't be a body to defile anyways."

"In any case we have change our plans. We'll be moving one hour ahead of schedule and Brother will be staying here with Justice, Faceless, and Jungle Rot to fight off the invaders." Konan informed her subordinates who had no real reaction to this news other than Kisame jumping for joy.

"Hell yes! Now I can finally beat that Kyuubi brat's ass in for the shit he pulled on me!" Kisame said with excited blood lust in his voice while the others walked past him.

"Once you've taken out the invaders head to the central room with Pein-sama to carry out their portion of the plan. We'll be replacing our troops from the losses we've had." Konan ordered her underling again, who smiled with killing intent before jumping off the pipes.

"You got it boss!"

* * *

_Running through the Woods_

_With moss on the trees_

_Listening to the sounds_

_Of the Birds and the Bees_

_Hachibi_

_That's me!_

_The rappin Killer B_

_Makin' beats and rhymes _

_And I'm makin' em live_

_Goin into battle_

_Could be quite a Pein_

_Sharpen your tounge _

_In the Village of Rain!_

"Hush up with the rapping B, we don't want any chairman to catch us here before we make it to camp." Hayate scolded the Kumo rapper only to go into one of his normal coughing fits.

"Like your one to talk Gekko; you keep coughing every 5 seconds you dumbass! Anyway we're almost to the camp with the others so we might as well pipe down so no Akatsuki-teme will catch us." Karui growled at her temporary squad mates, before she and the others made it to the checkpoint.

Upon arriving they saw the other teams that had been divided up into that camp with Naruto, Kotetsu, Isaribi, Shino, Ryo, Tokuhei, Hinata, Neji, Anko, Hana, and Tsume representing Konoha for this camp so far. Meanwhile Kumo had Darui, Yugito, and Samui stationed here while Iwa only had Akatsuchi. Likewise Utakata found himself stationed here away from his allies in Kiri, but Suna had Kankuro, Temari, Matsuri, Ittetsu, and Sari. Some of the biju were also there in human forms, such as Kurama running away from Saiken while Matatabi just watched in irritation.

Upon seeing Naruto sharpening Azuma with a nearby stone, Gai began to look around for a specific one of his students that were grouped with Naruto. But to his surprise and horror, the elite jounin couldn't find his equally hot blooded pupil anywhere. In response he ran up to Kotetsu with worry plastered on his face.

"Kotetsu-san, Lee was in your group right? He should be here!" Gai griped with concern.

Knowing where Lee had gone on the way there, Naruto stopped sharpening his katana and explained in the lieutenant's place "We came across one of the Akatsuki chairman on the way here; the one with exploding clay. Lee said he wanted to take the imbecile on, so I didn't get in his way."

"That's not as bad as I thought it would be. I feared that it would be that Justice character." Gai tried to hide his fear with a forced smile and a thumbs up, only to break out into a panic and run off moments later "What am I saying; I have to save my student! You're in charge of Division 11's forces until I get back Hayate-san!"

"That Gai has always been one hot blooded gaki. Well, I guess he's not really a gaki anymore. Being stuck in your gut for 18 years has really thrown off my sense of time, you know that gaki?" Kurama said to his wielder, only to notice he'd fallen asleep "YOU'RE DOZING OFF AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!"

"Don't be angry Kurama-kun, Naruto-kun's actually taking this pretty hard. You can tell it's a lot for him to actually stay asleep right now." Hinata pointed out, which got a mere shrug of acceptance out of Ichigo. While the demon walked away, she heard Isaribi brushing past her looking very red and in a lot of discomfort.

"Isaribi-chan, are you ok? You look a bit sick."

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it Hinata. I'm just a little worn from running all the way here. I'm sure everyone feels that way." Isaribi tried to excuse her ill appearance to the Hyuuga gennin, who wasn't fooled in the slightest by it.

"But everyone else here looks like they're ready to rip someone's head off!" Hinata pointed the contradiction in her friend's statement.

Isaribi still wasn't deterred by this and pointed to the sleeping Naruto "What are talking about? Your boyfriend is nodding off right over there!" Seconds later, Isaribi felt her body tighten up as she was forcibly pulled into a painful slouching position. This didn't go unnoticed by Hinata or the other shinobi stationed there.

The first one to arrive to the spasming kunoichi, was Anko who assisted in holding her back up to normal stature "What's wrong with you? Did that Artist freak get a blow into you on the way here!"

"I told you I'm fine!" Isaribi continued to lie, while the pain got worse.

"Don't lie to me girlie! I feel your muscles cramping up and as someone who's entire job is based off pain, I know that feeling well." Anko scolded the former lieuntenant, only for Isaribi to suddenly pass out in her arms with a high fever.

"Isaribi-chan!"

"Everyone, we've got a woman down here! We need someone here to follow Gai and take Isaribi to one of the Division 4 camps stationed by the villages." Anko ordered the shinobi nearby, not noticing her dozing subordinate was starting to wake up with a fearful expression as he felt the ground around him.

"I'll take her up! I'm not going to lose one of the only ones my younger brother left behind!" Hana cried out in fury and grief, while her mother interjected.

"Not so fast pup, what if that Akatsuki chairman is still alive? You could get caught in the cross fire; besides I'll be faster with Kuromaru and Akamaru lessening the load compared to your Haimaru brothers."

"I'm not sure about that Tsume-san, even if Deidera's still alive then Hana-chan will give him a hell of a time with how strong she is. Besides that green bean has my subordinate's trust, so I don't really see anything to worry about." Anko said to her fellow captain. While her mother was distracted, Hana had taken the unconscious Isaribi and ran in the other direction.

"Damn it Hana you get back here right now!" Tsume angrily yelled at her daughter before noticing that Akamaru was following her on her journey "Where the hell are you going mutt?"

"I think it's for the same reasons as Hana-senpai. Besides him they were probably the closest to Kiba-kun, so it stands to reason that he'll try to protect them." Hinata said to the Inuzuka clan head, before she heard Naruto beginning to yell.

"EVERYONE GET PREPARED FOR BATTLE! THE AKATSUKI ARE COMING!"

As if on cue several minor Akatsuki members leapt out from the lichen covered trees, throwing kunai and shuriken, and firing pistols down onto the camp. This didn't go well for them in the slightest with several strong shinobi from all five great nations stationed there. In minutes all of them were taken out.

**"Jyuuken"**

**"Jyuuken"**

**"Ink Spilling"**

**"Oni Giri"**

**"Earth Release: Golem Technique"**

**"Wind Scythe"**

**"Crow"**

**"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands"**

**"Dance of the Crescent Moon"**

**"Black Lightning"**

**"Soap Chain Cutter"**

**"Cloud Style Front Beheading"**

**"Hornet Swarm"**

* * *

With the small wave sent after them defeated, the camp headed further into Akatsuki territory with intent to kill. On the way there they found more of the seperate camps had also dealt with the same thing, having lost a few troops from the assault. Seeing her old friend Anko ran up to the recently promoted Division 2 captain.

"Just when things were looking to be easy! Any news from you Kurenai-chan?"

"We lost a few of our men during the surprise attack, and we need to be extra careful from here on in. Yahiko has already sent one of his chairman at us before, so there's no telling when they'll try again." Kurenai predicted only for it to come true a few seconds later when Itachi, Kisame, Tucker, and Sasori suddenly came running from the forest clearing.

One of these chairman instantly got a very negative response from several Allied ninja on the battle field, most notably from the Inuzuka members of Division 7 and the Aburame members of Division 12. Many of them charged at Tucker with pure rage and hatred, only to be struck down almost instantly.

**"Stinger Claw"**

While cutting down the numerous enemies coming his way was rather easy for the mad doctor at first, he quickly found his claws blocked by a pair of blades "So it appears the Kyuubi brat who stole my arm from me has come out to play. That's good, now I can kill all these people in front of you."

"You act as if I'm going to try and kill you today. That's her job more than mine." Naruto growled with a smile at Shou. Before Tucker could figure out what he meant by this, he had to defend against a deadly spiral attack from behind.

**"Gatsuuga"**

**"Kame Shell Shield"**

Before Tsume could make impact on her son's killer, he formed a large shell around him to absorb the blow with his Ochichite powers "Damn you bastard! Come out and face your death like a man!"

"You first shemale!" Tucker insulted her, confident he couldn't be hurt inside his shell. This backfired when he felt something rustling on the outside. The strange noise was replaced by spraying which somehow melted right through his defense.

**"Satanic Acid"**

"Those bugs I used to melt your shield are called Devil Rider Walking Sticks. They spray a powerful and dangerous acid which can melt at close distances. With the power of the Pest-Pest Fruit making it stronger, it can melt through just about anything!" Shino said as he approached the cornered doctor.

Shou Tucker looked at the Aburame heir with an angry expression, only for it to turn into an expression of fear when he turned around to see he was now at the mercy of both Naruto and Tsume, who didn't have a drop of it in there bodies. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, Hinata appeared with her Byakugan flared with rage.

"Remember me Tucker-me? You killed my teammate three weeks ago!" Hinata said as her chakra formed lions around her hands.

"No! Please! Have mercy!" Tucker cried as all three of the scorned shinobi prepared to attack.

"Did you give my son mercy bastard?"

**"Demonic Illusion: Mirage Crow"**

Before either of them could lay their attacks on Tucker, Itachi intervened by unleashing one of his genjutsu into the battlefield. It managed to hit several shinobi on the battlefield, including Tsume putting her into a brief genjutsu. Naruto simply unsheathed Kurama and used his chakra nullifying capabilities to cancel out the crows, not noticing that Tucker had scrambled away in fear.

"You can't fool me with that again Uchiha!" Naruto yelled at Itachi only for him to suddenly flash in front of him and grab the swordsman.

**"Early Sacrifice"**

Itachi slipped onto Naruto's shoulder before throwing him up and slamming him into the ground. Naruto got up while ignoring his cracked ribs, knowing they would heal quickly; he unsheathed all his swords with intent to attack again, only for Itachi to stop him dead in his tracks.

**"Tsukuyomi"**

_Naruto found himself tied to a cross in a world where the only colors seemed to be red and black. He tried to look around found his neck movement was halted along with any other mobility. The only thing he could see was Itachi staring right at him._

_"You may been able to beat Sasuke, but me and Tobi are in a completely different league. I wonder how much of this you can take." Itachi droned with a monotone voice, before sending a knife into Naruto's stomach. The swordsman was barely able to hold in a pain filled growl._

_He lost consciousness again, and woke up to find there were now two Itachi's facing him, both of whom began to stab him "In the world of the Tsukuyomi space and time are illusions. I control everything. Everytime you pass out, you'll be faced with even more pain than before. Get comfortable Naruto, because you're going to be here for 72 hours."_

_Naruto kept panting but smiled at the Akatsuki chairman "Bring it on Itachi-teme. I've been through much worse."_

This kept on for 72 hours in Naruto's mind, but only lasted for a moment on the outside. Despite looking confident Naruto was clearly put through a strain by the genjutsu "What did I tell you it was nothing!" After saying this Naruto passed out from exhaustion.

"Naruto-kun!"

**_"Don't worry he's going to be fine! I can have him completely back up to fighting speed in a couple of hours. What you need to focus on right now is getting him away from the Akatsuki."_**

Hinata was about to comply with her boyfriend's tenant, only to notice that Sasori's tail was coming towards her "You're not going anywhere girlie! Now hand over the demon!"

"You'll have to kill me first!" Hinata turned her Byakugan back on with intent to fight the Suna missing-nin only for something to intervene.

**"Salamander"**

Before the tail could hit her, a large lizard like puppet blocked it's path with a shield. And at the other end of the shield was Kankuro "I've been dying for a rematch with you Akasuna. Let's settle things here."

"You're still alive? That's good, that means I get to kill you all o-" Sasori didn't have time to complete his sentence as Konan had picked him up and was flying away in the form of a large paper bird, having already picked up Tucker and Itachi "What was that Angel-sama?"

"We have to move on to the next phase of our plan. They're already trapped so Brother will take care of the rest." Konan explained to the retreating chairman as they headed towards their destination "Now Genocide, release your genjutsu!"

"Hai Angel-sama. Release!"

In what seemed like an instant, the enviroment around the Allied Forces had drastcally changed. What was once a wet and dreary forest was now an industrialized area with even rainier weather than before and high skyscrapers made from what appeared to be pipes. And in the center of it all was a large lake.

Kurenai looked around to see they were enclosed inside the large walls of Amegakure, with the gates having just been shut. To make matters worse, they were now at the mercy of Kisame with a large army of Akatsuki agents armed with numerous weapons "Alright boys, take no prisoners except for the Jinchuriki! Except the Cinderface! That one's mine!"

"Damnit! We were inside a genjutsu the entire time! How could I have not noticed it! Shitty Akatsuki gaki!" Kurenai stuttered out with both shock and shame in her voice.

"Don't worry Kurenai-sensei, none of us noticed it either. At the moment we're all to blame for this mess." Shino said bluntly before turning to Hinata and speaking again "Hinata-san, what happened to Naruto-san?"

"Sasuke's older brother did something to him. I think it might have been some sort of genjutsu with his Sharingan!"

"If that's the case, we have to find Naruto a safe spot so Ichigo-senpai can give him some energy. If that fishman catches him in this form, it will be curtains for Naruto and Ichigo-senpai." Kurenai whispered grimly to her remaining students.

"What's that about my bro Naruto?" Another voice said to them from behind. The small team looked over their shoulders to see Killer B was crouching behind looking curious "The one time I saw someone looking like that was fighting the Uchiha Clan's Division 11 during the Third Great Shinobi War."

"Itachi did this to him with the Tsukuyomi. We need to find him some solid ground to rest." Hinata explained to the rapping Jinchuriki who grinned.

"No problemo Byakugan-hime I can take down Kisame for you and Naruto!"

"Thanks B-san. Hinata-chan, me and Shino will stay here and fight the Akatsuki here. I'm giving you a mission to find a safe area. If there are any other chairman around, then you and Ichigo-senpai will have to keep him safe till he recovers." Kurenai ordered her student, who immediately followed the order by picking up Naruto and running off the battlefield.

Needless to say Kisame didn't like this in the slightest as he leapt into the air with Samehada held above in a swinging position "You're not going anywhere Hyuuga! Not with that prick!"

**"Acrobat"**

Kisame quickly found himself blocked by Killer B, who was using all 8 of his Gyuki swords. Despite being able to block the attack, B was knocked back several yards and into the lake nearby. Luckily for him, he used the Water Walking technique to avoid sinking and stood in preparation for battle.

"You're the Hachibi Jinchuriki right?" Kisame asked while cracking his neck and sneering at B "I wanted to kill the Kyuubi Jinchuriki first, but you'll do for a warm up with the Hyuuga."

* * *

While the fight between Kisame and Killer B was starting to rage on with the rest of the battle, Yahiko sat on his throne while waiting for Paths of Pain to recharge. As of this moment only Lucci and Tobi stood beside him in the throne room with the fossilized Jubi statue.

"Pein-sama, Tobi is really bored right now. Can Tobi go fight the invaders with Brother and Jungle Rot?" Tobi asked excitedly to his leader, while Lucci sighed in irritation.

"I swear Faceless if you weren't stronger than me I would have killed you by now. And besides Jungle Rot isn't even fighting right now. Brother is capturing the remaining Jinchuriki while the others are carrying out the next portion of expanding our army."

"Speaking of which where is Jungle Rot? For someone who can literally appear from the anywhere he does seem to disappear quite a bit." Yahiko pondered aloud only for Zetsu to appear from the walls as Pein stated would happen.

"We're here Pein-sama, and we have important news. We saw Hinata Hyuuga carrying your younger brother away from the battle and into a cavern. From the looks of things Itachi got to him." Zetsu informed those in the room.

Lucci then stood up and asked Pein "Shall I go kill her and capture Cinderface Pein-sama?"

"No fair Justice-kun! Why do you get to have all the fun!"

"Silence, both of you! Jinchuriki's powers are based off emotion. So if Naruto wakes up to find his love dead, it could hold catastrophic consequences for the village on the same level as the Night of Kyuubi. We'll leave them alive for now until we can safely apprehend #9. Which I intend on doing with my new plan."

Yahiko then snapped fingers, signaling the Shinju to stand up and fan out its ten tails. While those witnessing wondered what the purpose of this was, they quickly got their answer when the tails suddenly jabbed into Zetsu, lifting it off the ground "Pein-sama, what is the meaning of this?"

"Simple Jungle Rot, according to Genius' research we can make a Jubi Jinchuriki linked to the statue using this method. And it just so happens you were planning on betraying me to Danzō!" Yahiko revealed angrily to the shock of Lucci and Tobi, both for radically different reasons.

"Looks like he figured you out!"

"Shut up! Don't you see this is merging us?"

"Oh joy. Now I get to deal with all your whiny thoughts in my own head! Mommy! Mommy!"

"All you can think about is food!"

"Piss off!"

"I can't! We're fusing you hear? Fusing!"

The pair continued to fight and bicker with each other until the process was complete, and both their minds, souls, and bodies were merged into a completely new being by the Shinju. Seeing his work was done, Yahiko snapped his fingers again which caused Shinju to loosen it's grip and drop the figure.

"Now Jinchuriki of the Jubi, rise and complete the purpose of your making!" Yahiko ordered the new chairman which rose up with a smile.

"Complete my purpose? Now that sounds interesting!" The new being said with a melodious voice as it rose up.

* * *

_Yo! Hey! Ho!_

_Ya know my swords!_

_My awards!_

_Hittin chords!_

_Hachitoryu from the hills to the fjords!_

_Now a Seven Swordsman_

_He's downright cocky!_

_His name is Kisame Hoshigaki!_

_Unlimited chakra's the claim of this shark!_

_He grinds down lives like a walk in the park!_

_But we'll see just who's your patriarch!_

"Are you rapping at me? Just forget, I'll finish you of as quickly as possible to get to Cinderface." Kisame growled in irritation at B, before doing a series of hand signs, which caused a great ripple in the lake. A few moments later, a shark made of water shot out from the blue straight at B.

**"Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique"**

**"Ink Spilling"**

Before impact could be made, a wave of ink shot from B's mouth a formed shield which absorbed the blow "So the rumors are true. The element of the Hachibi is ink, which you can mold into any shape. This just got interesting."

_You got that right_

_Seen the light_

_Now get ready cause _

_I'm gonna make you weep _

_You sharky creepy_

Killer B then let a massive amount his tenant's youkai spread across his body, in the form of a biju cloak with seven tails "Did you know that in the wild, octopi eat sharks?!" B cried as he charged toward the fishman with his swords armed, only for them to get stuck in the bandages of Samehada.

"I didn't know that actually. But did you know that my sword can eat other weapons? But that's not all it can do." Kisame sneered before Samehada went into another transformation. It's scales grew wider and longer giving it a more threatening appearance, and a mouth appeared at the top "It can also eat chakra and youkai!"

With his sword's transformation complete, Kisame removed the blade from Gyuki gave Killer B a hard swing to the chest, sending him tumbling behind the Akatsuki chairman. He looked up to see that Samehada had only gotten bigger and more ferocious "Looks like now the shark will devour the octopus."

_'That sword's got a really big appetite. Lucky for me that thing can only devour so much of Gyuki-niisan's chakra before giving itself indigestion.' _B thought to himself while watching the sword dine on his chakra _'If that's the case then my next set of bars should do the trick."_

"This is exciting. I've never seen Samehada get so big off of chakra."

**_'Hey bro, I think it might be time to enter tailed beast state. This guy seems like he's one of the strongest in the Akatsuki, so we should probably play itself.'_**

_'Not right now bakame, if we do it to quickly we might end up doin' more harm than good to the guys and gals fighting the Akatauki soldiers over there.'_

_**'So you're just going to stick with Version 2 mode for now?'**_

_'Yeah, but most of my own chakra got taken away."_

_"A few moments ago by Kisame!"_

_"So you're gonna have to lend me some youkai."_

_"Okay?"_

**_'Alright then, let's go!'_**

Kisame visibly winced upon seeing even more youkai spray out from B, till he was quickly enveloped in it through the form of what appeared to be an eight tailed ox. Strangely B's eight swords were sticking out from the tails of the form. Now the scales on Samehada were beginning to rustle even louder than before.

"Samehada's getting excited. But can it really take in this much chakra?" Kisame quickly got his answer when the transformed B rammed into him with a battle cry. However this massive use of power instantly brought B back down to his original state.

"Can't believe I already lost that much youkai. Hey buddy, you still alive over there?" B asked Kisame who now had a massive hole burned in his chest from the youkai. Before anything else could happen however, the hilt of Samehada suddenly crawled up Kisame's sleeve, which somehow began healing his injuries.

"The thing about me is, I become stronger the stronger my opponent is. So I'm nigh impossible to kill with much ease. When my sword steals your chakra, all it does is give it to me. Now, prepare to see why I'm called the Tailless Tailed Beast! I hope you cah your breath Jinchuriki."

**"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique"**

Now both swordsman were pulled under the lake by the force of the vortex, giving be very little time to take in a large breath and form an air bubble around him with what little youkai he had left.

"The longer we fight, the more chakra I'll shave off of you. And the weaker you get the stronger I'll become!" Kisame bragged as he used his gills to breath under the lake "And don't try going back up, I'll just drag you right back under for more fun!"

"I've gotta get that sword away from him. Otherwise I'll end up just like Roshi!"

"I can hear everything you're saying you know? But if you want to take my sword, you'll have to rip it out of my body!" Kisame howled as his body began to reform itself after fusing with the Samehada. His appearance was now even more shark like with fins on his arms and head, a large white tail, sharp and threatening scales, and a much more beast like face.

"Now feel the wrath of a great white shark fishman!"

**"Yabusame"**

B had little time to react before Kisame sent a small splash of water at him through the lake, which suddenly knocked him back several feet caused a large gash in his stomach. In response to this sudden attack, Gyuki growled **_'Shit, he's using fishman karate on us. Quickly go into Version 2 till you can come up with some sort of plan!'_**

The Jinchuriki didn't have time to react before Kisame rammed himself into B, absorbing even more chakra and youkai from him "What's the matter Hachibi, running out of air? You wouldn't need it if you were a fishman like me!" Kisame gloated before tossing B even deeper into the water and attacking again.

**"Water Release: Five Feeding Sharks"**

Kisame's jutsu formed five sharks from the water which encircled down towards B, entrapping him in a wild and painful feeding frenzy. By the time they were finished Killer B had coughed up several pints of blood and ink into the water, and had several lacerations all over his body from the attack. Kisame then swam back down and grabbed him again.

"As long I've got ahold of you, I can keep syphoning your chakra till your nothing but a dry husk of a Jinchuriki. Then all I'll have to do is present you to Pein-sama!" Kisame said with glee at how the fight had been going "I can feel Samehada trembling with excitement. No one in the Akatsuki is as good as I am at capturing prey!"

"Then why were Deidera and Sasori the only ones to actually capture a Jinchuriki?" B mocked the fishman, which got him another attack to the stomach while Kisame tightened his grip on the rapper.

**"Soshark"**

"I'm going to suck you dry Jinchuriki!" Kisame growled in anger, as B coughed up even more fluid. As you can imagine he was very surprised when B suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder nearby his gills.

"You want my chakra so bad fishman! You can take it!" B cried as he put his mouth up to Kisame's gills before releasing gallons of ink into them.

**"Ink Spilling"**

Kisame screamed in pain with his breathing restricted in such a way, only to scream even louder when the ink morphed it's form into several large spikes "AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHH! WHY YOU BASTARD!" Kisame screamed in fury and agony as he punched B away several yards away.

"There's one thing I don't understand about you fishman. I can tell from fighting you that you're an excellent ninja. Why would you squander all that potential working for an organization like the Akatsuki?" B asked the fishman, which only seemed to make him angrier.

"Because I understand better than anyone else that this world is rotten to the core. My people are treated like cattle in the Grand Line and Marejois by the Celestial Dragons, and the World Government let's them get away with it! They took my love and my child away from me and didn't face any punishment for it! Any resistance to this status quo from people like Fisher Tiger, Otohime, Whitebeard, Ace, or my own brother, is met with imprisonment or death. My home is forced into protection from scum like Big Mom and Kaido who extort us for treasure and goods! That's why I fight with the Akatsuki, to create a world that's truly equal!"

"And you're going to do that by taking the lives of thousands of innocent people all over the world?!"

"If that's what it takes to save my people from further injustice!" Kisame screamed with tears in his eyes before preparing to attack again "Now let's end this Killer B!"

**"Water Release: One Thousand Feeding Sharks"**

**"Ink Spilling"**

As said by Kisame, a large underwater wave of a thousand shark appeared from Kisame's attack which swam at mach speed towards the eight tailed Jinchuirki. In response B made a large shield of ink with the help of of his biju powers. While the shield proved to be somewhat of a hindrance for the swarm, the attack barely managed to break through and attack B.

"Guess that's over with now. I hope that didn't kill him otherwise Genocide and Pein will never let me hear the end of it." Kisame said to himself, sure B had been defeated. He figured out he was wrong upon seeing balls of ink floating around him.

**"Shadow Pin Gauntlet"**

Before he had time to react, needles shot out in several places from the balls of ink impaling him in several places and making it impossible to move. Kisame felt his own blood boil upon seeing B rise up from the depths of the lake completely unharmed "How the hell are you not at least missing a few pieces?"

"I substituted myself with a boulder right before my ink shield broke. All I had to do then was wait for the ink I'd been spitting out to form and make those bad boys. Now then, didn't you say something about ending this earlier?" B said as he armed all of his eight swords and rushed Kisame.

**"Hachitoryu Strike"**

B spun around while stabbing and slashing at the restricted Kisame, specifically hitting him 8 different times with his demon weapons, knocking him back many yards to the very edge of the lake. Surprisingly Kisame didn't seem very affected by these blows at all "It'll take a lot more than that to finish me off Jinchuriki!"

"That's wasn't what I was trying to do fool! Cause ink is thicker than water!" B exclaimed to Kisame's confusion. The fishman quickly figured out what he meant with a look of horror when he realized the ink B had dispensing now made up at least a fourth of the water in the lake, due to having been spread out during the fight.

Things only got worse for the fishman when B had the ink head towards and grab him in the form of a gigantic arm. The arm then began rising out of the water with Kisame still in it's grip, kicking and screaming all the way "Now fishman, drop some bars for your defeat!"

"NO! I REFUSE TO BE DEFEATED BY THIS IMBECILE! PUT ME THE HELL DOWN! PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

B merely smirked at the fishman's angry ravings "If you insist!"

"Damnit, it's like there's no end to them!" Genma growled in annoyance at having to fight off so many of the agents before noticing the large shadow being cast on them "Hey Raidō, you might want to do something about that."

"Got it Genma." Raidō said professionally said as he created a large mirror shield to block the incoming attack on the fishman.

**"Reflection"**

**"Titanic Roast"**

When the hand made impact onto the mirror this instantly meant tons of trouble for Kisame. Not only did he have to deal with the intense pain of being slammed down by the hand, but mirror shield reflecting it all back at him. When the mirror inevitably shattered into nothing, he unfused from Samehada and dropped back to the ground.

Surprsingly he was barely able to hold onto consciousness after the heavy barrage of attacks he'd just been put through and slowly but surely got back up "Damn octopus. I'm not going down that easily."

"Forever alone eh buddy?" Kisame turned around to be instantly knocked out with a punch to the face, courtesy of Kurenai "I am a Captain now, I have to take care of scum like you."

* * *

While this was going on, Gai was running a now unconscious Lee back to the Division 4 medical camp nearby. Being well renowned for his incredible speed and leg strength, Gai was able to make it there in little time. He ran up to the supervisor of the camp to turn Lee over for medical attention.

"I need your help. My student was injured incredibly fighting the Akatsuki, and if he doesn't get treatment soon his flames of youth will go out for good!" Gai told the supervisor with desperation in his voice.

"What happened to him? He looks like an over-steamed lobster!" The medic-nin said in shock referring to the burns Lee got from the Eight Gates and Deidera's explosive attacks "Wait a minute, is this that kid from the preliminary rounds of the last Chunin Exams? Says here that he's the son of former Division 2 captain "Elemental" Katsu Lee. First he gets his throat messed up from all the sand in his stomach and lungs, now this?! This kid's just a magnet for trouble."

"Can you do anything to help him?"

"We'll try but we're not miracle workers. Especially not with our captain and lieutenant having gone AWOL. Even in the best case scenario it will take at least a few weeks for him to recuperate. Anyways can you fill out this form? We'll have to submit it to the council."

After being handed the form, Gai ran to the cover of a nearby tree to avoid the increasingly terrible rain to fill out the form. The medic-nin then put Lee on a stretcher and carted him off into a nearby tent for treatment. Gai sighed in anxiety before realizing someone else was next to him on the tree nearby.

"Gai-senpai? What are you doing here, I thought you would be looking for Lee to help him fight Artist?" Hana asked while filling out the form as well.

"I did and he beat Artist, but he got hurt pretty badly so I took him back here to get medical help. On another note, what are you doing here Hana-san?"

"Something is wrong with Isaribi-chan. We were about to go through with the invasion but she suddenly collapsed with cramps and a fever." Hana explained before she heard one of the medic nin call from down below.

"Excuse me you're Hana Inzukua right, the Divison 7 lieutenant? We have some important news concerning your clan member."

"Yes I am." Hana said to the medic nin before jumping off the branch with the paperwork and walking alongside him into the camp with the Haimaru triplets and Akamaru following her to the tent where Isaribi was recovering "So what's the problem doctor? Is it anything serious?"

"Sort of. It's nothing life threatening, but things will get very difficult for her in the near future. She was seeing one of the victims of the Akatsuki attack a few weeks ago right?" The medic-nin asked which got an answer out of Hana rather quickly.

"Yes, he was my brother Kiba Inuzuka. Shou Tucker was the one who killed him."

"Well from the looks of things he picked a pretty bad time to up and die, because he was going to be a father. Whatever smiley Tucker fed to this girl made the early symptoms a lot worse." The medic nin dropped the bomb resulting in Hana dropping to her knees from the shock.

"Damn you Kiba, it's just like you to do something so stupid. Going to this level of commitment so soon. You'd probably crack five seconds in!" Hana growled in anger with her late brother, before she started to audibly choke up "You shitty moron. You're just going to leave our clan like this aren't you? Damn you Tucker, you filthy load of shit."

Akamaru whined in sadness at the thought of his old master, before hearing a noise from the nearby forest. Being silent as possible, he slipped out of the tent and into the woods to follow the noise, ignoring the rain and focusing only on tracking. He eventually came across the noise, and growled upon seeing who was causing it.

"This is taking quite some time. I wish Angel-sama dropped us of somewhere a bit closer to the destination instead of this ruddy forest." Tucker said nonchalantly as he walked with a sealing scroll in hand and Sasori by his side.

"Quit complaining, I have to walk an entire desert in 8 hours for your stupid plan, while you only have to walk about 5 miles."

"In any case, the plan should be going smoothly with Brother blocking the path out, so we should have a mess of Jinchuriki in no time with my other new experiment." Shou Tucker said darkly while pushing up his glasses.

Now Sasori was sick of the man "Ochichite standards have really gone down hill since I gained my powers. I'm going to head to Sunagakure now, have fun with Konoha."

"Oh believe me, I'll have lots of fun turning the village that scorned my work into the greatest scientific discovery yet from my great mind." Shou Tucker said as he headed further south to carry out his plans. However Akamaru was following him with only one goal in mind. Revenge.

* * *

B had crawled out of the water after taking back in all the ink he'd used in the water and found that after the long struggle, they'd managed to defeat and capture all of the Akatsuki and Ame-nin stationed in the outside of Amegakure, including Kisame who was now bound with a large wooden stock.

In response to seeing her leader rise up from the water Karui ran up to greet him "I'm surprised that even you were able to beat that lunatic B-senpai. That fishman seems like one flat souled customer."

"That's not the only flat thing here." Omoi said as he walked up, which resulted in him getting put in a headlock by Karui.

"Are you talking about me bastard?!"

B laughed at this only to see Shino and run up to him "Yo Aburame, do you know what happened to Naruto."

"Unfortunately no, I presume Hinata-san found him safe ground to rest as long as there are no other chairman around." Shino said in his regular stoic manner as he scratched behind his ear "I saw Neji-san and Kakashi-sensei following them earlier so if things go bad, at least they'll have a chance."

While they were checking on B, Kurenai and Anko were currently guarding his opponent "This is is Kisame Hoshigaki? We're luck we caught him off guard; I heard he's one of the strongest chairman."

"Well we were lucky and that's all that matters." Anko said before cracking her knuckles to prepare for interrogation, only to notice a kanji tattoo on his shoulder "What's that tattoo supposed to be? Never heard of that name before."

"That's because we made it up for my daughter. I never actually did meet her." Kisame said somberly as he turned his head away to avoid looking at Anko and Kurenai, to the shock of the captains "It's not like it really matters. Even if you've managed to beat me, there's no way you can avoid what we've got planned next."

"And what exactly would that be fishman?" Anko asked Kisame with killing intent in her voice. Needless to say, what she saw next shocked her and everyone else on the battlefield.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out!" Kisame growled as he suddenly broke from the stocks holding him, and backflipped into water. Despite attempts to stop him, he landed in the water with a large puff of smoke covering the area.

**"Water Release: Water Prison Technique"**

**"Summoning Jutsu: Deadly Shark Triad"**

When the smoke cleared Kisame was revealed to have imprisoned himself inside a large ball of water, which wouldn't be much of a threat due to the gills below his shoulders. However the sharks he summoned inside the water ball was certainly a much bigger problem. It was no secret what he was planning.

"No Brother-senpai!"

"We can still win this if we just wait for Pein-sama!"

"Be quiet you bunch of fools! I'll be executed by Danzō after interrogation anyways. If I'm going to die I might as well die with a shred of my dignity." Kisame yelled at the captured agents before contemplating his life as the sharks encircled him _'So I'm going to die here. At least I get to choose how unlike my fishman brothers in Marejois. And her…"_

_"Finally chunin after all these years. I was worried we'd be gennin forever cause of our bloodlines!" Maglako said as he stretched his legs on the dock._

_"Don't complain, we're lucky to be chunin at all with the Takagan Niisan."_

_"I was frozen today!" Maglako stuck his tongue out at his younger brother before turning to Zabuza and Kisame "I'm even more impressed with you guys. It's rare even in Kumo or Konoha to become chunin so young, especially with fishman blood."_

_"Hey this gaki's younger than me, and unlike him I didn't graduate through a homicidal rampage."_

_"Shut the hell up Kisame!" A much younger and more childish Zabuza yelled at the fishman only to see a green haired mermaid kunoichi coming near them from the harbor entrance "Hey your girlfriend's here!"_

_"She's my wife dumbass." Kisame corrected the younger chunin before walking over to his newlwed wife "Hey Cahya, when's that girl coming out of you again. I'm tired of not being able to go on missions with you."_

_"Playing it tough for all your swordsman friends Kisame? Cause when we're at home you're always practically dancing from excitement." Cahya said with a huge grin, to Kisame's embarresment "And then there's that name you picked. What was it again? Oh yeah, Keimi!"_

"Mihawk, Maglako, Chojūro, Zabuza, Shyarly, Arlong, Cahya, Keimi. I've been a real idiot haven't I? I just hope I can see the young woman you've grown up to be, in a better place my daughter…Well, I'm probably going to end up in hell aren't I?" Kisame said with a grin before his summons consumed him and the prison of water went red with his blood.

* * *

_"Man, Itachi really did a number on him didn't he? I'm surprised it's taken this much of my youkai to get him back to speed." _Naruto's eyes began flutter open to see blurs that looked vaguely like Kurama and Hinata.

_"Is he going to be ok Kurama-kun?" _

_"I hope _he will. I can't give much more energy to the kid." Ichigo said to Hinata before he heard a groan coming from Naruto. Seconds later he popped up and began looking around his environment in confusion.

Hinata was overjoyed at seeing him fully awake "Naruto-kun! Are you feeling ok?"

"What the hell happened to the forest? Why are we in a cave?" Naruto asked in befuddlement as to how he ended up there out of nowhere. Luckily for him, Kurama was there to set the record straight.

"Itachi hit you with a Tsukuyomi and it knocked you out; then he trapped us inside Amegakure with another genjutsu. So Hinata had to find some safe ground for me to heal you." Kurama explained before cringing with apparent discomfort and transforming back into a katana **_"I used up too much youkai just now. You guys are on your own in terms of healing for now!"_**

Naruto prepared to redo the tie that kept Kurama at his side, only to have Hinata's Byakugan flare up "Naruto-kun there's someone else in the cave with us. It might be a chairman!"

Now both shinobi were on guard in fighting stances, but weren't expecting for it to be a whole group of their allies, including Kakashi, Neji, Shikamaru, and every remaining Jinchuriki besides Killer B. Upon seeing them all Hinata cheered in relief "All of you are here? For a moment I thought you might have been Akatsuki."

"That's actually why we came Hinata-sama. We didn't want Justice and Faceless to ambush you and Naruto-sama while he was recovering, so we came to help guard him." Neji explained while Naruto approached to explain.

"I appreciate the concern. The two of us combined couldn't take on Lucci alone. It's a good thing I can actually move again."

"We should just consider ourselves lucky that what Itachi showed you didn't awaken Biju mode. Then we'd all completely screwed with Jiraiya off the continent again." Kakashi said, remembering the last time Tsukuyomi was used on a Jinchuriki. As if on cue, another memory of Kakashi's appeared in a flash of light.

**"Hirashin"**

It only took a few seconds after the light diminished to see an ANBU in a cat mask kneeling before them "Thanks goodness I'm not the only one who made it this far. That will make things much easier in the long run."

_"Wait a minute, who's this dapper looking man?"_ Saiken asked from his chainsaw form on Utakata's back.

Knowing full well of the man's true identity, Kakashi explained the most unrevealing information about Cat possible "This is Cat, the Division 13 captain. He served under me when I was ANBU captain."

"Now that you mention I recognize him too! He saved my ass from drunken mobs when I was a kid like 75 different times!" Naruto said with respect for the man in his voice.

This got some light teasing from Han "So the almighty Cinderface required saving. Pathetic!"

"I was 3!"

"If we're done with the joking around, we have to make it to the throne room. With the chairman he's got stationed here, Yahiko will be impossible to beat alone!" Cat said, which everyone saw fit to obey. Except for Neji who was now incredibly suspicious.

_'Wait a minute, did he just refer to Pein by his given name instead of his codename? Not even his younger brother has done that, does this mean he knew Pein previously?" _Neji thought to himself before turning on his Byakugan discreetly _'His facial structure and body shape seem too familiar. Like they were carved onto the side of a mountain…Wait…Could it be? There's only one way to be sure!'_

Without any warning, Neji shifted into the traditional Hyuuga fighting stance. While this confused everyone there, it was even more confusing when he suddenly sent a strike aimed at Cat's mask, to both his and Kakashi's horror as the mask shattered to pieces and flew across the hole.

**"Jyuuken"**

The cavern filled with a cold silence, as the man under the mask was recognizable even to those not living in Konoha. Kakashi seemed horrified with what happened, while Cat tried to cover up his face with his cloak to no avail. The one who seemed the most surprised by this turn of events was Naruto, who barely managed to squeak out one word.

"_O-otou-san?"_

* * *

**Akatsuki Chairman Remaining:**

**Yahiko Namikaze **

**Konan**

**Sasori Akasuna**

**Itachi Uchiha**

**ZBII COXKHBKPQBFK**

**Shou Tucker **

**Rob Lucci**

**Tobi Uchiha**

**(A/N): Cliffhanger no Jutsu! That's right feel the evil! But all jokes aside I really did a lot of what I said in the disclaimer. No matter what your ship is, we can agree that Bleach was an interesting and enjoyable tale despite its faults. People going completely mental, lying about Kubo, destroying their merchandise, is just depressing. Just as with Kishimoto, _Tite Kubo deserves better than this!_**

**Sorry I just had to get that off my chest. I sincerely hope this doesn't cause me to get flamed or lose any followers. I really felt bad about killing off my personal favorite of the Akatsuki in this chapter. I even thought about keeping around in the end. But he easily had one of the best deaths in the manga, so I thought it would be cruel to deprive him of it. Kisame Hoshigaki, I salute you for your badassery even in death.**

**And now for the really bad news which will make you want to guillotine me. Normally after a big cliffhanger like this I try to get the next chapter up as quickly as possible. This time however, I'm going on a small hiatus till November. My reason for this is that my other story Voodoo's Disciple is literally in the final third, and due to it's genre type I want the final chapter released on a specific date. As a result I'll be putting all my energy when not doing school or other activities into finishing that story. I apologize for having to make you all wait.**

**Now for the good news…**

**…**

**…**

**…**

**…**

**I got Erica Mendez to autograph a Kill la Kill poster at AnimeFest!**

**Next Chapter: Team Ichigo**

**. . .**


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